It seems to me that the dawn of reality TV came with COPS back in 1989. It was an appalling normalization of state violence and dehumanization as entertainment. Not unique in history of course, but something about being about to “otherize” from the comfort of your couch rather than facing the subject of your mockery and brutality in person felt really novel. It may seem a small step from the lynching picnic to the anonymous online forum, but I think the psychological distance may be further than we want to admit.
The size and depravity of an online mob seems unconstrained. We are witnessing the weaponization of those mobs, and to put it mildly it ain’t pretty. Americans seem to really enjoy casting stones and now it seems we can be made to cast digital boulders to real effect.