Shaming the Shameless: A Fool’s Errand

The Democratic Socialists of America are bolder in their nihilism than their forebears, but any political Darwinist would have predicted this evolutionary stage. 

Paul O’Brien | August 20, 2026

About 30 years ago, a defense attorney asked if I would stipulate to the expertise of a proposed witness, a local community college professor. The proffered expert’s only memorable qualification was that she had authored (but not yet published) an academic paper that posited low self-esteem as the principal cause of criminal behavior. For a variety of reasons, I told her, The People declined. I didn’t share the most compelling reason with her: the premise of the proposed expert’s work simply didn’t pass my smell-test.

To her client’s misfortune, the timing of the defense attorney’s request was coincident with the retelling of one of the vilest utterances I have ever been privy to: a  judge had recently spoken of a juvenile who confessed why he had shot and killed a man. “He looked at me,” the ward explained. “He doesn’t get to look at me.”

Unlike the would-be expert’s appeasing opinion, the “youth’s” testimony was consistent with much that I had observed about the criminal class, particularly among career offenders. Knowing my intuition did not amount to legal authority, I decided to search for informed voices who would support my gut-formed theory. As luck would have it, I stumbled upon a then-new study that not only refuted the proffered “expert” opinion, but found the opposite to be true. The incarcerated tended to have an exaggerated sense of self-esteem, according to the research, and the defense bar was horrified. It has been 20 years since I’ve seen mention of the findings.

In this space, I recently suggested that public shaming was never about rehabilitation; instead, it was and remains a tacit threat to the rest of us to eschew the alleged misconduct of those “shamed.” A thoughtful reader took me to task for what he........

© American Thinker