Simple - it denies the potential for rehabilitation. Used to be that was a liberal value, but now in the extreme shaming culture that has erupted with social media - that's all chucked out the window in favor of the mob's pound of flesh. And as a liberal, the excessiveness, lack of nuance, and rigid unforgiving attitudes that I see piss me off.
Shaming and sanctions have their place, enough to administer appropriate correction. Excessive shaming and sanctions are destructive.
The conversation around shaming and rehabilitation often has me split in two directions.
I'll start by saying that shame doesn't work. At least, in the sense that research shows it does a terrible job in changing an individual's behavior. Whether shame acts as a deterrent for others, I cannot say. I would argue that shame isn't the point though; the more important message about the more open and public climate regarding this is "you will not get away with this anymore".
The more conflicting issue I have is with the nature of rehabilitation, chiefly: who's responsibility is it?
On the one hand, I feel that both an institution (such as UKGE) and a broader community (i.e; gamers) have the strongest obligation to make their spaces safe and inclusive. Now, there is disagreement on the virtues of inclusivity, but those disagreements are wrong. It's objectively
better for the hobby that our community has grown significantly in size, scope, and diversity. That means making it clear that bad behavior that threatens the safety of members of the community (of which starting a game off with the implication of rape certainly qualifies, whether you'd like to pretend it doesn't or not) needs to met with removal from the institution (UKGE) and potentially removal (through ostracization, if nothing else) from the community.
This certainly does not leave out the possibility for rehabilitation, but it places the onus of rehabilitation on the offender themselves, which requires good faith efforts to (a) recognize the harm of their actions, (b) make good faith efforts to apologize to those harmed, and (c) making the effort to change bad behaviors. This is difficult but hardly impossible; see Dan Harmon for a great example of this playing out. See also James Gunn. As opposed to, you know, running to the guy who penned "In Defense of Rape" to tell your side of the story.
I think there's a more nuanced discussion to be had about whether certain members within the community should also be responsible for aiding and supporting an offenders rehabilitation. Certainly not those individuals who are or would be most impacted by their actions, but certainly people in positions of privilege (cis white straight men, specifically) who could do more to step up, reach out to perpetrators, and help them understand why their behavior is wrong. I would definitely not agree that it's the responsibility of women, for example, to reform misogynists, serial harassers or sexual offenders, for example. Note that I'm aware there are people who are doing just that (I know Danny, for instance, has a lot of respect for the black man who goes around talking to and deprogramming KKK members), but that doing that kind of work as the target of people's bad behaviors takes a superhuman emotional effort, and nobody should be held up to that kind of standard. People are allowed to prioritize their safety, physical, mental, or otherwise.
I also don't think social ostracization
precludes the possibility of rehabilitation. The research showing that shame often has a net
negative effect on individual behavior certainly makes it less likely, which is why it sometimes gives me pause, but again, I think that both individuals and communities have a stronger obligation to prioritize their safety than they do in rehabilitating bad actors. And again, while it makes the rehabilitation
harder... so? Do we have an obligation to make rehabilitation
easy? Shouldn't it take effort and work?
And is there a difference between what is right and what is practical?
I agree that this is a complicated and complex issue where the right answer lies between "gtfo forever goodbye" and "everyone deserves a good faith second chance guys!" And I think we're still stumbling our way to that right answer. But we don't get there by just ignoring it or sweeping it under the rug or putting our fingers in our collective ears and screaming "this doesn't concern me!"
