I think a big problem with "apologies" nowadays is that they are often not apologies at all, but exercises in ritual humiliation. True apologies (e.g. what pas

I think a big problem with "apologies" nowadays is that they are often not apologies at all, but exercises in ritual humiliation. True apologies (e.g. what passes between people who care about each other when one of them transgresses in some way) are conversations in which someone expresses concern for the injured party and makes it clear that they're unhappy about what they've done. They aren't structured or formulaic and might not even contain the word "sorry". The kind of "apology" that parents force uncomprehending children into ("Say you're sorry!") is a totally different thing. We all remember going through it. It has nothing to do with genuinely understanding your duty and responsibility towards others, it's just a Pavlovian training device. Child misbehaves, parent humiliates child, child learns not to misbehave. The social media public "apology" is even further removed from the real thing because it usually relates not to personal relationships and authentic emotional responses, but to making insincere sacrifices to the political correctness gods in order to limit damage to career/reputation/revenue/share price. There's no point critiquing them, except perhaps to evaluate them as some kind of dubious art form.