I wanted to elaborate on my post from yesterday because it’s something that increasingly bothers me in today’s online world.  It seems like the ability to quickly amass a group of people has led many to jump right over the “reasonable conversation” stage and straight to the “mob putting someone on trial” stage.

Take the Amazon story from yesterday.  I don’t know who initially found the alleged discrepancy but they couldn’t have tried to discuss the matter privately with Amazon.  Because the story broke on Easter Sunday meaning anyone who would have responded wouldn’t even be in the office. 

So they almost certainly went straight to the crowd.

Now ask yourself what the root of this behavior is.  When you try to get a crowd to support you what are you doing?  In my mind you are preparing to use force against who ever opposes you.  Because you don’t need a crowd to have a reasonable discussion.  That just takes two people. 

The only function a crowd serves is to represent a threat.  Whether it’s “we’re going to do something to you” or “we’re going to stop buying stuff from you” the intent is the same: To prove you have enough support to do harm to the other party.

Now, just to be clear, I do think there are times when amassing a group is good.  But only after you’ve tried to reason with your opponent.  That’s where the bullying comes in.  When you don’t even try to allow for a reasonable compromise and instead opt to strike out before anything else you are being a bully. 

The internet is a wonderful thing but it brings with it the ability to cause pain to each other in ways we could never have imagined before.  Given that I think we’d all be well advised to think before lashing out at people.  At the very least you should make sure you’ve given someone the chance to meet your demands before going on the offensive.