The Ethics of Public Shaming
As I alluded to before the jump, I just glossed over a LOT of considerations. (How to implement public shaming fairly, who gets to have the power to use it, how do we avoid misusing it, what is the difference between shaming and shunning, how does public shaming interact with academic freedom, does it matter if we engage in shaming for the purpose of fostering the emotion of shame or promoting a change in behavior, whether there should be different reactions for people who do or do not suffer from the hostile environments they contribute to, whether we should discuss formal punishments and sanctions separately from informal responses, whether there are more effective tools at our disposal, etc.) If someone is itching to rip apart my analogy or lay down some actual philosophical ethics (since I’m sure some people out there have even, you know, written professionally about that sort of thing), please feel free to do so.