So You've Been Publicly Shamed

For several years, John Ronson studied the phenomenon of “public shaming” by meeting its victims—people who had gotten themselves into big trouble. One single wrongdoing—and a wave of public rage crashed down like a powerful tsunami, sweeping everything away. What is it: a new kind of justice or an abuse of power? “So, you’ve been publicly humiliated” is Ronson’s investigation—simultaneously baffling and unbelievably funny—into how people, under the pretext of restoring justice, sometimes literally destroy other people’s lives.