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So You've Been Publicly Shamed
- Narrated by: Jon Ronson
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
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So You've Been Publicly Shamed
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Publisher's Summary
From the Sunday Times top ten best-selling author of The Psychopath Test, a captivating and brilliant exploration of one of our world's most underappreciated forces: shame.
"It's about the terror, isn't it?"
"The terror of what?" I said.
"The terror of being found out."
For the past three years, Jon Ronson has travelled the world, meeting recipients of high-profile public shamings. The shamed are people like us - people who, say, made jokes on social media that came out badly or made mistakes at work. Once their transgressions were revealed, collective outrage circled with the force of a hurricane, and the next thing they knew they were being torn apart by an angry mob, jeered, demonized, sometimes even fired from their jobs.
A great renaissance of public shaming is sweeping our land. Justice has been democratized. The silent majority are getting a voice. But what are we doing with our voice? We are mercilessly finding people's faults. We are defining the boundaries of normality by ruining the lives of those outside it. We are using shame as a form of social control.
Simultaneously powerful and hilarious in the way only Jon Ronson can be, So You've Been Publicly Shamed is a deeply honest book about modern life, full of eye-opening truths about the escalating war on human flaws - and the very scary part we all play in it.
Jon Ronson is an award-winning writer and documentary maker. He is the author of two best sellers, Them: Adventures with Extremists and The Men Who Stare at Goats, and two collections Out of the Ordinary: True Tales of Everyday Craziness and What I Do: More True Tales of Everyday Craziness. He lives in London.
This is an updated edition with new afterword, written and narrated by Jon Ronson.
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 46
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 56
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 51
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 34
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 32
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What the critics say
What listeners say about So You've Been Publicly Shamed
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- coach amanda
- 2020-11-23
An interesting topic
I'm a big fan of Jon Ronson and this book did not disappoint. It is topical and well researched. I knocked off a star because I prefer listening to his recorded interviews rather than hearing him describe them.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Macie
- 2018-09-13
Terrifying
Absolutely fascinating and on-point look at the way the internet outrage machine punishes people who don't meet the requirements of whatever is deemed to be acceptable behaviour. This book looks as how a single insensitive tweet can completely destroy the life of the person who sent it, and shines a light on how mass-humiliation is used to silence and ruin people who made even a single minor mistake. Jon Ronson critically examines the desire of the internet hive-mind to "take people to task" without any regard for what the long term impact of say, ending the career of a woman for delivering a poorly-worded joke about white privilege, will have before they move onto the next person who possibly pretended to yell in front of a sign that asked for silence at a war memorial.
While the book touches on the added angle of misogyny in a lot of this shaming, I feel like it could have been explored more thoroughly, but that's a whole other book.
All in all, this is an incredibly eye-opening read.
A very effective line: "Shamings are always about more than the transgression."
#Audible1
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- JohnS
- 2019-08-19
A call to civility on social media
This book exposes starkly what a misplaced thought or comment leads to in today's world of anonymity on social media. Listening to it made me feel sad and puzzled about what some humans are capable of. A highly relevant indictment of aspects of our social media world. I am left with the question - how to we pull back from the edge? Very well done, John Ronson.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Brian
- 2021-01-22
Perfect performance by Ronson
The narration is on point! Felt so natural and like you're listening to a podcast. Content was chilling and a must read for our current world.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- HRPuff&Stuff
- 2019-09-19
Wow! Perhaps the best book on the new world of social media
JR is a empathetic fair investigator of this growing phenomenon of on line shaming and the truly shallow nature of rich societies encouraging a practice similar to the Salem Witch hunts.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Tom
- 2020-12-07
Funny and thoughtful
In depth journalism executed with genuine curiosity, wit, humor, insight, and kindness. I loved it.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 2019-07-19
well-read and well-written
I enjoyed this book immensely and finished it in one day. I always appreciate the tremendous empathy and Humanity with which Jon Ronson approaches his subject matter. the afterword is particularly interesting.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Briony
- 2018-12-11
This book should be a required read in schools
Thank you for so perfectly articulating this issue, in a society where we are the most connected via social media we are the most disconnected to basic human kindness.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Charles Demers
- 2020-09-05
Humane & intelligent & depressingly prescient
The fact that this came out five years ago, & everything he talks about has only gotten worse, is both a testament to Ronson’s insight & a depressing reminder of the ultimately limited power of good writing & ideas.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- william
- 2018-09-05
a must read for an internet age
This book is highly informative to the modern internet culture. I find it to be a must read for anyone who is active in social media, or a public personality.
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