The institutionalization of shamelessness
Shame only exists in public, and the public doesn't exist anymore. (Plus a final note)
I can't remember a more dismal time than now for American progressive movements. It's not just that these groups or movements are facing a dip in energy - that has happened before, in 2009/10, around 2013/14, and other times. What's happening now is a more profound malaise that seems to encompass vision, strategy, and fundraising.
Totalitarians are advancing their political agenda across US cities and states, organizing to overturn the next election. The Supreme Court is denying political and human rights in broad sweeps, and companies that poison and pollute are literally making more money than they have at any point in history, ever.
Largely, the response of organizations or movements focused on protecting people, the planet, and the future has been feeble. There are points of light, but they mostly exist outside of structure or strategy: in the US voters are rejecting abortion restrictions, most prominently, or the removal of censorious reactionaries from local school boards, but these feel like eddies swirling against a tide. It's not hard to imagine how quickly they could be reversed by the advancement of authoritarian politics on a national or state scale.
The end of mass mobilization
Mass mobilization has been the centerpiece of progressive politics for generations. The assumption was that elites cared about the public, and that mass participation would signal that the public was aligning against them. That chain of logic is broken, and what needs to replace it looks much more like the labor movements and targeted campaigns that have grown in meaningful ways in the past few years.
The last moment of widespread American mass mobilization for justice was the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, and I think it's probably best to think of that moment as the end of an era. In the absence of a coherent public sphere, we should begin to explore other tools if we are to protect the planet and the people who live on it from the worst excesses of the wealthy and well-connected.
Shame is for little people
Do I need to repeat what happened in 2020 and January 2021? I'd rather not. But let's talk about what's happening as a result.
The impact of the pandemic and attempted coup in the United States are still being felt in what I think of as the institutionalization of shamelessness. COVID supercharged the alternative reality that had been gestating in extremist politics since at least 9/11, and codified it in deeply held beliefs and organized networks.
Ripped away from the patterns of normal life, Americans spent over a year in a running battle over lockdowns and vaccines, which turned what was a series of disagreements into a biological reality, reflected in the bodies and minds of millions of Americans.
Digital misinformation networks took on an outsized role in an otherwise isolated social life; the people that did gather in great numbers self-selected for disregard for our obligations to others. Among extremists, a refusal to feel shame for disregarding the wellbeing of others became a virtue, and new celebrities built well-run networks around themselves to support this value.
The ultimate manifestation of this was the Trump campaign's attempted coup in January 2021. The Trump administration's routine violation of norms were not just a product of Trump's disposition; they were a product of incentives that rewarded breaking these norms with press hits, viral posts, and donor money. In early 2021 these incentives were peaking, with alternative extremist media running unchecked and a political fundraising machine still operating at full tilt from the election.
Incredibly few political leaders of the coup attempt have suffered meaningful consequences for their actions. Most of the impact has fallen on activists who have been forced into prison, embarrassing confessions, or losing their jobs. But the remainder of that base is still committed to supporting their agenda, financially and politically, and the organizers of the coup are mostly fine.
The lesson
I think that the lesson elites took from that moment is that every conflict over norms is manageable if you hold on to your core supporters. You do not need to care about the public - you need to care about the people willing to click click share, or fund your next venture.
The strategy of shameless disregard for the public is now everywhere. You can see it in the way that tech platforms like Reddit and Twitter handled user backlash over changing policies by simply barreling through objections, or how companies making record sums of money have handled what to do with their profits by simply paying out their shareholders and hoping attention will shift. It's certainly present in the strategy of political leaders in countries like Iran and Israel that have responded to mass disruptive protest with simple disregard for any form of democracy.
Sharpening other tools
In the absence of respect for public shaming, mass mobilization will continue to fail as a reliable way to move the cynics and grifters who want to be in power. Corporate America is ruled by a narrowing class of billionaires who exercise power through private equity that has no shareholders or transparency. Reactionary elite politics is run via cult structures whose first and most emphatic imperative is to cut off your supporters from alternative sources of information.
Other tools will probably need to be honed, and I think they will look more like the very successful union organizing campaigns of the past few years. Unions have a sharp understanding of their targets interests, and have built tools to align those interests with their own. If elites are acting in a narrow vision of self-interest, movement strategy needs to hone its understanding of what they truly want, and find ways to address it with cold clarity.
A final note…
This post fulfills my 2023 New Year’s resolution to post one essay per month this year. It also coincides with a bit of burnout, and reaching the bottom of the barrel of things I have wanted to write about. After I post my 2023 book list (coming soon!) I’m going to take a break from posting, possibly for several months or longer. Thank you for reading and all your very kind feedback over the past year!