ROD DREHER ON HOW THE NRA TURNED TOXIC OVERNIGHT:

Me, I don’t care one way or another whether or not people choose to boycott the NRA, and those that do business with it. Of course it is their right to boycott.

Still, it’s chilling to see how quickly this kind of thing happens, owing to social media. “Chilling” because of the herd mentality that develops overnight when a social media mob gets started on a subject. A business or a cause can be ruined overnight. We saw something very similar in 2015 around the Indiana RFRA law. Corporations and the NCAA compelled state lawmakers to change their minds. Memories Pizza, a small-town pizzeria, was hounded mercilessly because a TV reporter asked its Evangelical owner if he would cater a gay wedding, and he said no.

The big lesson of the Indiana RFRA debacle was: Once big business joins the social justice mob, it’s over.

If you can think if a single instance in which a social media mob was activated behind a conservative cause, then you’re a better thinker than I am. It is inconceivable to me that big business would break off any relationships with left-wing advocacy groups because a conservative social media mob intimidated them.

Even if you think the NRA deserves what it gets, you ought to be deeply worried about the power of social-media mob action. It’s terrifying how quickly the mob can destroy a person’s livelihood. You might believe that it’s perfectly fine, because finally a technique is having an effect on an evil institution, and bring about justice. But what happens when that mob is turned onto you, and an institution or cause that you support? What happens when you are given no opportunity to defend yourself, but have to face a tsunami of rage? What happens when you can’t count on anybody to defend you, because they rightly fear that the mob will go after them next?

As John Nolte tweeted yesterday, “The future is Trotskyite fascism cloaked in self-righteous victimhood.”