Echo Greg, you’d be interested in reading “So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed.” Ronson follows Justine Sacco and her life after this incident, and she had panic attacks and journalists stalked her everywhere. It was a misunderstood joke that probably wasn’t the wisest thing. Her extended family in the African National Party in South Africa, Nelson Mandela’s party, effectively disowned her for the shame she brought through the tweet. She couldn’t date anyone. She eventually worked in Ethiopia at a nonprofit, where people still attacked her and tried to ruin her life.
People have tweeted much worse things, much like our President. I try not to engage in these online shame storms because it’s not about justice. People just see the opportunism in promoting their own status. Come on, though. Don’t we all have social media posts that would look extremely bad if someone dug enough? How are we better than her?
Sacco herself agreed to interview with Ronson 4 months after this happened and didn’t want to interview anymore. She just didn’t want to be in the spotlight anymore. I just think the whole thing was ridiculous that people benefited so much from this woman’s suffering from a misunderstood tweet.
