Sanitized and Sanitized

My sticky notes from Jon Ronson's The Castle: On ChatGPT: Millions were falling for the machine's obsequiousness. It felt like another ripple from the downfall of the old institutions. Structures fall apart, people become directionless, and the tech companies swoop in with new ways to monetize our feeling of purposelessness -- our desire to be of use -- by telling us we aren't worthless. On the era of public shaming: People didn't like being told what to do by groups of ideologically driven or bored strangers, and they hated feeling scared that Twitter might turn on them at any moment. And as a consequence of the overuse of shame as a weapon, transgressors hardened. They mutated like hospital superbugs, sanitized and sanitized until they became impervious to treatment. Refusing to feel ashamed was healthy if the shaming had been inappropriate, but people started brushing the shame off no matter the seriousness of their wrongdoing. And maybe now we are seeing another mutation, from…