Is it time to stop worrying and love the panopticon?

Lessons from the attempted outing of the creator of a list of alleged male predators

Always watching.
(Image credit: Punkbarby / Alamy Stock Photo)

The latest wrinkle in the "shitty media men" story has got me wondering: Is it time to stop worrying and learn to love the digital panopticon?

For those who haven't been following the news, last October a list began circulating privately of, as the list's title had it, "shitty media men" — men who were accused of anything from creepy behavior at the office to rape and violent assault. The list was passed around avidly, and added to by multiple women. When the original creator tried to take the list down, she discovered she couldn't. It had, as they say, gone viral.

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Noah Millman

Noah Millman is a screenwriter and filmmaker, a political columnist and a critic. From 2012 through 2017 he was a senior editor and featured blogger at The American Conservative. His work has also appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Politico, USA Today, The New Republic, The Weekly Standard, Foreign Policy, Modern Age, First Things, and the Jewish Review of Books, among other publications. Noah lives in Brooklyn with his wife and son.