The Shame Machine was reviewed by Jennifer Szalai for the New York Times. I particularly like the last paragraph: “Aim higher,” O’Neil writes about the temptation to expose some random person’s lousy behavior. A simple rejoinder to our digital phantasmagoria, and not a bad piece of advice. Read the full review here.

In the past few days we’ve seen an unprecedented departure of Western corporations from the Russian market. First Facebook said they wouldn’t run Russian state backed ads, then oil companies like BP, Shell, and Exxon, then a bunch of others. When Starbucks, McDonalds, Pepsi, and Coca Cola didn’t act fast, the social media backlash soon… Continue reading Punching Up Against Putin

Take a look at what just came in the mail, I’m so psyched!!

Punching down shame is a form of bullying. It means we’re shaming someone for something they either cannot control or cannot explain, or both. We call it punching down because it’s unreasonable and inappropriate. And yet, it happens, at scale, and all the time. The question is, why? The answer is that punching down shame… Continue reading Why do we punch down?

There are lots of people up in arms about Spotify’s position on Joe Rogan’s vaccine misinformation. And although there are multiple players in this drama, I’m impressed by the professionalism with which Rogan is capitalizing on the underlying shame machine. Let’s start with Rogan’s publisher, Spotify. The CEO is trying to distance himself from the… Continue reading Joe Rogan is unashamed

Hello, and welcome to my new blog, in which I intend to muse about topics related to the news and to my new book, the Shame Machine, published by Penguin Random House and available March 22, 2022.