I Was the Mob Until the Mob Came for Me - Quillette"I drive food delivery for an online app to make rent and support myself and my young family.
This is my new life.
I once had a well paid job in what might be described as the social justice industry.
Then I upset the wrong person, and within a short window of time, I was considered too toxic for my employer’s taste.
I was publicly shamed, mobbed, and reduced to a symbol of male privilege.
I was cast out of my career and my professional community.
Writing anything under my own byline now would invite a renewal of this mobbing—which is why, with my editor’s permission, I am writing this under a pseudonym.
He knows who I am.
In my previous life, I was a self-righteous social justice crusader.
I would use my mid-sized Twitter and Facebook platforms to signal my wokeness on topics such as LGBT rights, rape culture, and racial injustice. Many of the opinions I held then are still opinions that I hold today.
But I now realize that my social-media hyperactivity was, in reality, doing more harm than good.
...
How did I become that person?
It happened because it was exhilarating.
Every time I would call someone racist or sexist, I would get a rush.
That rush would then be reaffirmed and sustained by the stars, hearts, and thumbs-up that constitute the nickels and dimes of social media validation.
The people giving me these stars, hearts, and thumbs-up were engaging in their own cynical game:
A fear of being targeted by the mob induces us to signal publicly that we are part of it..."
Fascinating story.
Read on.
