It has become a bit of a ritual over the past few years: A person does or says something a portion of the population finds offensive, a social media pile-on ensues, and a ritual apology, complete with acknowledgments of “harm” and commitments to “get educated,” is issued. Sometimes the initial action or comment is genuinely objectionable. Many times, however, it is not.
Through three studies, the researchers found that “participants’ concerns about social justice were not directly positively associated with online shaming and had few consistent indirect effects on shaming via moral outrage.” They concluded, “Overall, the current studies point to the hedonic motive in general and schadenfreude specifically as a key moral emotion associated with people’s shaming behaviour.
Columbia University professor and New York Times columnist John McWhorter aptly identified the ideologues this study is referencing as a part of a new public religion — complete with faith, sin, and repentance. But while proper religions encourage and are inherently tied up with important virtues, this new “woke” religion does the opposite.