So You've Been Publicly Shamed

For the past three years, Jon Ronson has travelled the world meeting recipients of high-profile public shamings. The shamed are people like us — people who, say, made a joke on social media that came out badly, or made a mistake at work. Once their transgression is revealed, collective outrage circles with the force of a hurricane and the next thing they know they're being torn apart by an angry mob, jeered at, demonized, sometimes even fired from their job. People are using shame as a form of social control.