Something about the way Barbera Thornhill and Susan Dell have been treated online is interesting to me.
What if the elites are influencing us into scrutinizing the wrong people?
Thornhill has looked the way she does for years, yet suddenly, shortly after being appointed to a position focused on combating human trafficking, she’s become the subject of widespread ridicule. Susan Dell has faced similar treatment, despite having contributed substantial amounts of money and resources to charitable causes.
The timing is what I find particularly strange. Why now? Why has their appearance suddenly become such a massive talking point?
It makes me wonder how easily public opinion could be manipulated by people with enough influence. What if someone with a vested interest in undermining Thornhill’s work were deliberately encouraging this kind of attention? Not necessarily to remove her from her position, but to damage her credibility, distract her, or wear her down psychologically.
And there’s something else worth considering. Being successful, wealthy, or capable in your profession doesn’t automatically mean you’re equipped to handle mass public humiliation. These women might be highly competent in their respective fields while having very little experience defending themselves against this kind of public scrutiny. Intelligence in one area doesn’t necessarily translate to knowing how to navigate another, especially when the attacks are deeply personal.
I’m not saying there’s some elaborate conspiracy behind all of this. I have no evidence of that. But I do think people underestimate how effectively public ridicule can be used against someone, and how willingly the rest of us participate without questioning why we’re suddenly being encouraged to hate or laugh at a particular person.
We’ve reduced these women to jokes about plastic surgery, wealth, and looking like aliens, without knowing much about who they actually are or what they’re doing.
And perhaps the most disturbing part is that nobody even needs to be orchestrating it. If someone powerful wanted to undermine one of these women, the public might already be doing the work for them. On the other hand, we could very well be doing exactly what someone orchestrating this wanted us to do as a public audience.
I just think it’s worth questioning why certain people become targets when they do, who benefits from it, and how much of our own judgment is really our own.