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The Ritual Shaming of James Damore still matters

The Ritual Shaming of James Damore still matters

Controlling speech through mob rule, from campus to corporation to political culture

https://twitter.com/fired4truth?lang=en

After the Charlottesville riots and killing of a woman, the Google firing of James Damore seems like it took place years ago.

But it was just a week ago.

While Charlottesville will dominate the headlines and political debate in coming weeks, the Google firing of Damore retains its significance, as it reflects a trend that has been most pronounced on campuses in recent years, but has moved into the corporate world and political culture. If anything, Ritual Shaming as a means of controlling speech will get even worse after Charlottesville.

That trend is not just the suppression of dissenting views on social issues, but the use of public shaming as the method. That concept, shaming, showed up numerous times as Damore described what happened to him.

In his Wall Street Journal Op-Ed, Why I Was Fired by Google, Damore wrote (emphasis added):

Everything changed when the document went viral within the company and the wider tech world. Those most zealously committed to the diversity creed—that all differences in outcome are due to differential treatment and all people are inherently the same—could not let this public offense go unpunished. They sent angry emails to Google’s human-resources department and everyone up my management chain, demanding censorship, retaliation and atonement.

Upper management tried to placate this surge of outrage by shaming me and misrepresenting my document, but they couldn’t really do otherwise: The mob would have set upon anyone who openly agreed with me or even tolerated my views. When the whole episode finally became a giant media controversy, thanks to external leaks, Google had to solve the problem caused by my supposedly sexist, anti-diversity manifesto, and the whole company came under heated and sometimes threatening scrutiny.

Damore spoke about the concept of public shaming in his interview with Ben Shapiro:

That concept of public shaming is well known on campuses. One example would be Prof. Bret Weinstein at Evergreen State University after he objected to a proposed Day without Whites on campus as improper racial bias:

(Language Warning)

Another example would be Yale Prof. Nicholas Christakis, who was confronted by hostile students after his faculty wife wrote that students should not get so upset about politically correct Halloween costumes:

Given the experience Christakis had, I noted his tweets about Damore:

https://twitter.com/NAChristakis/status/894740979743420424

Christakis links (and includes as screenshot) of an article by Laird Wilcox, The Practice of Ritual Defamation. Though written in 1990, that Ritual appears pulled from the modern campus and increasingly, the our current politics. Here is an excerpt:

http://www.lairdwilcox.com/news/defame.html

First, Laird describes what he means by Defamation, and Ritual Defamation:

Defamation is the destruction or attempted destruction of the reputation, status, character or standing in the community of a person or group of persons by unfair, wrongful, or malicious speech or publication. For the purposes of this essay, the central element is defamation in retaliation for the real or imagined attitudes, opinions or beliefs of the victim, with the intention of silencing or neutralizing his or her influence, and/or making an example of them so as to discourage similar independence and “insensitivity” or non-observance of taboos. It is different in nature and degree from simple criticism or disagreement in that it is aggressive, organized and skillfully applied, often by an organization or representative of a special interest group, and in that it consists of several characteristic elements.

Ritual Defamation is not ritualistic because it follows any prescribed religious or mystical doctrine, nor is it embraced in any particular document or scripture. Rather, it is ritualistic because it follows a predictable, stereotyped pattern which embraces a number of elements, as in a ritual.

Then Laird describes the elements:

  1. In a ritual defamation the victim must have violated a particular taboo in some way, usually by expressing or identifying with a forbidden attitude, opinion or belief. It is not necessary that he “do” anything about it or undertake any particular course of action, only that he engage in some form of communication or expression.
  2. The method of attack in a ritual defamation is to assail the character of the victim, and never to offer more than a perfunctory challenge to the particular attitudes, opinions or beliefs expressed or implied. Character assassination is its primary tool.
  3. An important rule in ritual defamation is to avoid engaging in any kind of debate over the truthfulness or reasonableness of what has been expressed, only condemn it. To debate opens the issue up for examination and discussion of its merits, and to consider the evidence that may support it, which is just what the ritual defamer is trying to avoid. The primary goal of a ritual defamation is censorship and repression.
  4. The victim is often somebody in the public eye – someone who is vulnerable to public opinion – although perhaps in a very modest way. It could be a schoolteacher, writer, businessman, minor official, or merely an outspoken citizen. Visibility enhances vulnerability to ritual defamation.
  5. An attempt, often successful, is made to involve others in the defamation. In the case of a public official, other public officials will be urged to denounce the offender. In the case of a student, other students will be called upon, and so on.
  6. In order for a ritual defamation to be effective, the victim must be dehumanized to the extent that he becomes identical with the offending attitude, opinion or belief, and in a manner which distorts it to the point where it appears at its most extreme. For example, a victim who is defamed as a “subversive” will be identified with the worst images of subversion, such as espionage, terrorism or treason. A victim defamed as a “pervert” will be identified with the worst images of perversion, including child molestation and rape. A victim defamed as a “racist” or “anti-Semitic” will be identified with the worst images of racism or anti-Semitism, such as lynchings or gas chambers.
  7. Also to be successful, a ritual defamation must bring pressure and humiliation on the victim from every quarter, including family and friends. If the victim has school children, they may be taunted and ridiculed as a consequence of adverse publicity. If they are employed, they may be fired from their job. If the victim belongs to clubs or associations, other members may be urged to expel them.
  8. Any explanation the victim may offer, including the claim of being misunderstood, is considered irrelevant. To claim truth as a defense for a politically incorrect value, opinion or belief is interpreted as defiance and only compounds the problem. Ritual defamation is often not necessarily an issue of being wrong or incorrect but rather of “insensitivity” and failing to observe social taboos.

Laird then goes on to describe the universality, power and weakness of this Ritual Defamation.

…. Like all propaganda and disinformation campaigns it is accomplished primarily through the manipulation of words and symbols. It is not used to persuade, but to punish. Although it may have cognitive elements, its thrust is primarily emotional. Ritual Defamation is used to hurt, to intimidate, to destroy, and to persecute, and to avoid the dialogue, debate and discussion upon which a free society depends. On those grounds it must be opposed no matter who tries to justify its use.

This concept of Ritual Defamation seems so insightful as to how people are silenced on social issues.

Expect things to get worse, because the tactic essentially is mob rule, and it works.

[Featured Image: Based on Jame Damore Twitter Profile Pic]

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Comments

Ritual shaming as an act of projection.

The left and left of center need to come to terms with their Pro-Choice quasi-religious philosophy. Their concept of diversity denies individual dignity. Their concept of human rights denies lives deemed unworthy. Their concept of justice is found in elective wars, elective regime changes, anti-nativism, refugee crises, and generational guilt by “color” (e.g. skin color, sex) association.

The Pro-Choice Church poses a clear and progressive threat to men, women, children, and babies, too.

LIES DECEIT DISTORTION- to generate control and targeted hate
The prog manifesto !

    JusticeDelivered in reply to Lewfarge. | August 14, 2017 at 9:35 am

    Isn’t the best solution to this problem to identify the highest profile people promoting attacks on others and give them a strong dose of their own medicine? Organize a core group to drive rumors abut them, maybe a network of a hundred or so people?

    I doubt that they will understand anything else.

The religion (i.e. moral philosophy) and science are settled: men and women are equal and complementary. [class] diversity is a progressive movement that intends to force people’s return to a bygone era.

Words with vague or changing meanings is also important for this type of campaign – marginalization, normalization, alt-right, fascism, Nazism, white supremacy, and the newest one,intersectionality, isn’t in the spellchecker programs yet.

Many things can be evaluated using the bell-shaped curve. The people identified as the ctrl-left and the alt-right should be at the 3 StdDevs edges of the curve. But, it seems that the left want to keep moving the definition of alt-right to the mid point of the curve, thus making more people part of the wrong thinking crowd.

And they think that they know the “true” meaning of words and they can intimidate others by shaming them. Of course, the left thinks they are shaming the right. But, the majority of the right rejects such labeling.

Instapundit mentioned today – “I WAS GOING TO WRITE SOMETHING ABOUT CHARLOTTESVILLE TODAY, but honestly I don’t think I could do better than Roger Simon. I do want to echo his comment that, for all the racial tension we see in the media and in politics, out in the actual world black and white people seem to be getting along pretty well.”

Here is the link to the Simon piece – https://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2017/08/12/is-charlottesville-whats-really-going-on-in-the-usa/

“Laird then goes on to describe the universality, power and weakness of this Ritual Defamation.”

THERE IS NO WEAKNESS OF RITUAL DEFAMATION.

Heck, there is no weakness of defamation. As Winston Churchill observerd, “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”

The Charlottesville story is further proof of the move beyond public shaming and into mob violence and mayhem. Public officials, by not reining in the mob, have given their tacit approval to this mob action.

casualobserver | August 14, 2017 at 6:50 am

Ritual defamation is certainly a tool that progressives have increasingly used to great effect. And whether they all realize it or not, that effect is amplified by other tactics that have been refined in modern times. For example, the push to take control of language has helped make the lynching of Damore so potent. Perhaps not even a decade ago, his words and the meaning of his long and well crafted piece could not have alarmed as many mobsters and wouldn’t have gotten those who did react as excited or energetic.

But the left has succeeded in leveraging what Orwell taught about words. So just the wrong word, much less the wrong thoughts, can now energize the mob. Twitter may be the single most important conduit that made this possible.

Sarah Palin and her lawsuit against the NYT come to mind. As do of course Melanie Trump, the President, and their son. I hope they know this and their lawyers read this. Great article

nordic_prince | August 14, 2017 at 9:29 am

After ritual shaming, the next logical step in the Left’s program of groupthink are self-criticism sessions a la North Korea.

Political Speech on the University of Maine campuses is not protected by Attorney General Janet Mills. She is a Democratic candidate for governor and has joined a quasi law firm of other Democratic A.G.’s to sue and legally harass large firms deemed guilty of not taking action to halt Climate change.

An Act To Protect Political Speech and Prevent Climate Change Policy Profiling (http://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/bills/bills_128th/billtexts/HP055101.asp) was entered into this legislative session and was killed in Committee despite evidence that the A.G. stifled free speech on one campus.

Ignoring the free speech rights of the ‘other side’ simply enables shaming the speaker. Even the new director of the Maine ACLU testified against the bill, despite the very founding of the ACLU on ‘free speech’ rights.

The problem with banning of what is deemed offensive is that people of differing world views will find what the others advocate is offensive.

On the second thought, I find all statist philosophies (Progressivism/Communism/Fascism/Nazism/Socialism) offensive, therefore they should all be banned!

On the third thought, since banning rarely works, let’s just shine the light of truth on them and ridicule them our of existence!

not going to speak to the “science” he spoke about as I have never studied it; however google (and many companies now) are in the habit of hiring for diversity sakes only.
so they are not hiring based on qualifications but on diversity criteria.
this can lead to a diminished quality in the products.
I have a dream….where hiring is blind to race/gender/etc and based solely on qualifications.

    Gunstar1 in reply to dmacleo. | August 18, 2017 at 2:04 am

    “I have a dream….where hiring is blind to race/gender/etc and based solely on qualifications.”

    The sad part of that is that I am sure plenty of people today would call you all sorts of names for saying such things, even though that is what MLK wanted.