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Fame, fortune and the rush of being on a moral crusade are a powerful cocktail. Academia and media have essentially set up an alternative justice system which
by blub 5y ago
Fame, fortune and the rush of being on a moral crusade are a powerful cocktail.
Academia and media have essentially set up an alternative justice system which is currently being misused to settle grudges or for career or financial benefits. Once it’s there though, it can be creatively misused and let loose on all sorts of undesirables. Whistleblowers, people not criticizing Russia hard enough, government critics, etc, etc.
- fourtrees 5y agoI'm sure the legitimate justice system can be misused alongside the others in various unethical ways. A slippery slope: we've reached a point where, with some kickback, institutions like the media can nearly silence dissent from a manufactured truth to whatever end. A witch-hunt/moral crusade, leaving fame and fortune aside a bit, is a potential consequence of this dissent. The true believer can, has, and will silence, punish (or kill) a dissenter, as their mere voice and presence risks the crusade by humanizing the dissenter and threatening the discourse on which its built. Given that many of the crusaders are true believers, a sense of dignity seems to follow the process, thus the rush of the crusade's actions and the enrolment of more crusaders wishing for even greater truth and justice. I can see this rapidly spiraling out of control, with or without government support. La lanterne? She's always been waiting.