From my entry “No Mob Rule,” posted two days ago:
“I cannot stress how careful we must be here, because we live in a nation of professional outrage. The far reaching effects of social media can kill a career, a life, a reputation, with just a single shout that spreads across the entire platform. Suicides will happen as human beings face throngs of angry commenters, who will not keep it strictly on social media.”
Well, we’ve seen our first example of that. A Kentucky state representative was accused of sexually molesting a 17 year old. He denied the accusations, and the heat built quickly. Today he committed suicide.
You can read the story here: http://www.wesh.com/article/kentucky-rep-dan-johnson-kills-self-sources-say/14429997?src=app
This is the concern I expressed earlier. I am fully behind people who have been sexually molested/assaulted coming forward, but the media does not, and will not weigh the information carefully, they will simply toss it up onto their websites, broadcast it on their channels, and allow everyone the opportunity to lay down their completely uninformed opinions on just how guilty the accused clearly was.
Whether the man was guilty or not, his life is now lost, because he saw no other way out. Even if he proved himself innocent, the allegations would have stuck with him, because people are cynical, they are filled with anger, and they wish to take it out on those whom they feel deserve it. That’s no joke. Most of the comments I’ve seen so far have been either “good riddance,” or “the problem took care of itself.”
That is the danger of leaving it up to the mob to decide what is and isn’t true. Now this man is dead. Social media “justice” works quickly.
I sincerely hope this trend does not continue, but I fear it will. We have made the accusation just as damning as the act itself. Now people are paying the price for it.