I love Jon Ronson and this book reminded me why. He digs into cases of people who have been publicly shamed online, and analyzes what it means to be ashamed, and really looks closely at the court of public opinion online, mainly via social media. I'm glad I read this today, post 'me-too' because I think a lot has happened since he published this in 2015, and I think this book should be required reading for online citizenry at this point.
Beyond the cases themselves, he gets into some interesting territory that I didn't expect. I especially liked what he had to say about James Gilligan, the psychiatrist who tried to overhaul the penal system in Massachusetts in the 1980s. He had introduced therapeutic communities for offenders that were based on a sort of radical empathy that tried to get under the causes of violence in criminal offenders--which inevitably gets into issues of systemic and structural violence and inequality. His work seemed fascinating and like it had enormous potential for prison reform.
I also enjoyed reading about the 'real' story behind the Stanford Prison experiments--I hadn't realized that lots of people viewed the findings as totally spurious and felt the students roles in makeshift prison had been performative rather than indicative of a fundamental lack of human decency.
I also laughed out loud repeatedly and made a note to read more Jon Ronson soon!