>it feels like such an overinflated digital age argument.

It is and if it just stayed on twitter it would be a nothing burger ... but somebody's real life career, good name, and business was destroyed. It wasn't the first time this happened in the past 5 years (but especially in the past year)

From the article: "Roost’s podcast network dropped her show; her producer publicly denounced her character (“We stand against racism”)"

Isn't it ... terrible that her producer performed this public shaming ritual where they denounced their former coworker and friend and labeled them a racist? Imagine seeing your friends, family and coworkers publicly denounce you because either they themselves are afraid to stand up to the mob, or maybe because they have something to gain. There have been people who were ostracized because they wouldn't sufficiently (and publicly) denounced their family or if they attempted to defend their children (!!).

In a few years, these kinds of shenanigans are going to be characterized as a moral panic, in the same vein (though orders of magnitude more broad) as the "Satanic ritual abuse" in the 80s, and heck, even the "Salem witch trials".

I swear it's a modern day Shibboleth[0]. I mean, just look at the picture in that article of the pogrom. Villagers displaying pictures/support for Jesus during pogram == internet denizens (and companies) showing that they denounce racism. Or to use another biblical analogy, I suspect a lot of times when a company publically denounces racism, what they are really doing is painting lamb's blood above their doorway in the hope that the "destroying angel" (mobs) will pass by them.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibboleth

A more apt, and more modern, analogy is the struggle session (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struggle_session).

>Isn't it ... terrible that her producer performed this public shaming ritual where they denounced their former coworker and friend and labeled them a racist? Imagine seeing your friends, family and coworkers publicly denounce you because either they themselves are afraid to stand up to the mob, or maybe because they have something to gain. There have been people who were ostracized because they wouldn't sufficiently (and publicly) denounced their family or if they attempted to defend their children (!!).

This is no less than a 2020 version of the Communist world's struggle session (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struggle_session).

I agree, I think a lot of people are going to look back on this period with more than a little embarrassment. What will make it worse for them is that so much of what they said and did will remain preserved forever.

It is kind of entertaining in a guilty sort of way. Like Jerry Springer or a car crash it can be hard to look away. And they do seem mostly to be going after one another so it’s hard to feel too much sympathy for the victims.

> digital age argument

There is something about the lack of personal connection that leads to extremes in the digital environment. I have a feeling that if these people had met over coffee to discuss her story it would have been a non-issue. Instead, disagreements and mistakes blow up, because once an audience is involved it's very hard for either side to back down.

Sometimes it's a challenge, but I always think 'is this how I would act if this person was sitting in front of me'.