Something that occurs to me as a possibly useful place to draw the line: if you’re using your sensitivity to become aware of problems, that’s awesome! If you’re using it to condemn other people? Maybe not so awesome.

Like, consider this different issue for a moment…I think that a lot of people would hold the notion that spousal infidelity is a pretty awful thing. But it doesn’t logically follow that the best response to it is to publicly call out and shame people for it. That’s very much an emotional and cathartic reaction, especially for people who have been hurt by the sin in question.

(I say “sin” because even though this encompasses secular audiences, the way that appropriation et al gets treated is very similar to the concept of sin, at least as it’s expressed in the Judeo-Christian worldview. And heck, in Christianity you have that story about Jesus and the woman caught in adultery. The best response is one of charity, support, and forgiveness/understanding. Empathy, even.)

And also yeah, there’s definitely mob mentality issues here. This reminds me that I need to wrap up my Game Chef design that I totally flaked on–it’s inspired by Mafia, which as far as I’m concerned is a depressingly accurate glimpse into Internet culture. (In fact, the most seriously-played Mafia games have incredible parallels with social media flashpoints. I can elaborate if need be.)