Call-out culture leads people to self-censor in fear of mass ridicule
Life in a call-out culture requires constant vigilance, fear, and self-censorship. Many in the audience may feel sympathy for the person being shamed but are afraid to speak up, yielding the false impression that the audience is unanimous in its condemnation. Here is how a student at Smith College describes her induction into its call-out culture in the fall of 2014:
“During my first days at Smith, I witnessed countless conversations that consisted of one person telling the other that their opinion was wrong. The word “offensive” was almost always included in the reasoning. Within a few short weeks, members of my freshman class had quickly assimilated to this new way of non-thinking. They could soon detect a politically incorrect view and call the person out on their “mistake.” I began to voice my opinion less often to avoid being berated and judged by a community that claims to represent the free expression of ideas. I learned, along with every other student, to walk on eggshells for fear that I may say something “offensive.” That is the social norm here.”
Reports from around the country are remarkably similar: students at many colleges today are walking on eggshells, afraid of saying the wrong thing, liking the wrong post, or coming to the defense of someone whom they know to be innocent, out of fear that they themselves will be called out by a mob on social media. Conor Friedersdorf, who writes about higher education at The Atlantic, looked into the matter. Students told him things like this: “Students get worked up over the smallest of issues … which has led to the disintegration of school spirit and the fracture of campus.” And this, from another student:
“I probably hold back 90 percent of the things that I want to say due to fear of being called out… . People won’t call you out because your opinion is wrong. People will call you out for literally anything. On Twitter today I came across someone making fun of a girl who made a video talking about how much she loved God and how she was praying for everyone. There were hundreds of comments, rude comments, below the video. It was to the point that they weren’t even making fun of what she was standing for. They were picking apart everything. Her eyebrows, the way her mouth moves, her voice, the way her hair was parted. Ridiculous”
In this comment, we can begin to see the way that social media amplifies the cruelty and “virtue signaling” that are recurrent features of call-out culture.
References
- Lukianoff, Greg. Haidt, Jonathan. (2019). The Coddling of the American Mind Chapter 3 The Untruth of Us Versus Them Life is a Battle Between Good People and Evil People (Epub p. 98). New York, NY: Penguin Random House.
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