[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by jammies

In a free society, everything not forbidden is permitted.

I thought I was clear that I was arguing for regulation here. That is, we should find a way to curtail this behaviour at least in some situations, somehow, so that the most serious consequences of wrongdoing are not meted out by a largely faceless (by virtue of sheer volume and geographical diversity) mob. Many of whom don't see the target as a human being, really, and are in large part just amusing themselves.

we have the right to find that deplorable and express our opinion in public to that effect.

Sure. The issue is gleefully doing so en-masse in a manner wholly disproportionate to the original incident. A lot of outrage - and I'm not talking specifically about this situation because this guy is wholly unsympathetic - is just opportunistic. It seems like people are just waiting for the next chance to frantically stimulate themselves to a schadenfreude infused ragegasm. In many cases, this victimizes people who don't deserve it, even if they DID screw up. Is the reaction excessive here? Up for debate... though I'm inclined to say that while poaching is bad, if I were crafting a sentence for what this guy did, it wouldn't involve losing his business and being made a social pariah.

There honestly aren't many crimes that should be punishable with what is effectively a global scale version of being tarred, feathered and run out of town on a rail.

Whether people should exercise that right in a particular situation is another question entirely, but to say it's not our right to do so is utterly and completely wrong. If you're going to argue against internet shaming, you need to demonstrate why a particular issue isn't worthy of the outrage, and not argue uselessly that people don't have the right to feel and express outrage at all because it's "subjective".

Just in connection to the above, in an ideal world where people are behaving rationally I would agree. Unfortunately, the argument as to whether an incident deserves the outrage it gets is utterly beside the point - it really doesn't matter if it's worthy of the outrage if people are aiming to find an outlet to shame in the first place. Or just a target to direct a mob at for the sake of it.