The Ritual Shaming of James Damore still matters

WILLIAM A. JACOBSON AUG 13, 2017 8:05 PM

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:

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:

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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