One of the tweets that day drew a comparison with the public shamings of yesteryear: “Ugh, Jonah Lehrer is apologizing next to a live Twitter feed of people mocking him. Cruelly, a Twitter feed had been placed in the author’s eyeline so he was able to read, there and then, the tweets denouncing him as a “sociopath”, “self-deluded” and “tainted as a writer forever.” The apology started well, but comparing himself to inadvertently imperfect FBI scientists turned out to be an ill-judged move – and not one the public were willing to let pass. Jonah took the opportunity to give a public apology. The shamed author agreed to give the keynote speech at an industry dinner – something that would be screened live via the organiser’s website. Modern mob-justice means even one ill-advised tweet can be career ending…īut in some ways the worst was still to come. And not just for serious crimes or infidelities. The accused would stand at a wooden frame with holes for their head and hands, and the jeering public were encouraged to chuck rotten eggs, vegetables, offal – even bricks and stones – at them.Īlthough we are no longer vilified out in the village square, brutal public shamings are still happening every day in cyber space. Tarring and feathering was a form of public retribution that endured for centuries, in which the accused would be stripped, covered in hot, sticky tar and rolled in feathers.Īnd then, of course, there was the pillory (a cousin of the stocks), which was used for social shaming from the middle ages to the late 18th century. One source refers to how, in 1552, a pair who smuggled two pigs into London were forced to ride through the city’s streets with a carcass around each of their necks and a garland of trotters on their heads. In Tudor England, punishments became more creative. In medieval Britain, shaming parades – where those deemed dishonest would be marched through the streets – were a part of normal life. Although we are no longer vilified out in the village square, brutal public shamings are still happening every day in cyber space.
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