Public Shaming

[Phoebe]

In some jurisdictions there's a problem with people in poverty being fined for things like parking tickets and misdemeanors, and then jailed for failure to pay the fine, leading to job losses or crises with kids, further warrants, and more jail. A vicious cycle is created.

[Tahlvin]

Yep. And now you're starting to get into the territory of things like bail practices being unfair, because poor people are less likely to be able to afford posting bail for even minor offenses. And those practices also being racist, because an disproportionate number of those offenders are blacks or other minorities. It's a tricky problem.

[Phoebe]

Conor Friedersdorf, with whom I agree a good 70% of the time, has a great take on this regarding the Lena Dunham shaming method. Tl;dr less polite version: it's a load of horseshit to publicly call out low-level employees whose jobs might be affected, for having a private conversation that you happened to overhear and may even have misinterpreted thanks to other aspects of your privileged location in life. She is such a brat.

[WillyGilligan]

While I'm not a fan of the Alt Right meme factories, the term "virtue signalling", as overused as it is, applies to the Lena Dunham tweet. That story has nothing about her making any situation better. She's just letting the world know how good she is by displaying her disdain for people with the wrong opinion. It's almost like Dire Straits and Money for Nothing, but those guys made ART and used their eavesdropping to poke fun at themselves as much as the laborers.

I still haven't found the people that listen to Lena Dunham statements positively. So I really wish we could all agree to ignore her until she becomes worthwhile.

[Phoebe]

Agreed, this really is a case of "virtue signalling" because it fits the key criterion of doing something publicly to advertise your moral worth, even though justice was not thereby served and nothing was made right.