I wonder how visible Mark Clark’s behavior was to the community he operated in, because if you remember RH’s behavior was very, very public, and yet few people called her on it. Those who did were generally mobbed by her supporters. All this was possible because of an ideology that explicitly says it’s okay to silence/abuse some people, the same ideology that we’re seeing in the serial farragos at Goldsmith’s UCL (where as you know bullying and abuse is also in the mix).

Any ideology that treats people differently on the basis of race, gender, religion, hair color, or whatever, will always be hackable by a good manipulator. If the defining characteristic is hair color than there will be endless debates about exactly what shade someone’s hair is, or whether they are ‘blonde on the inside’, or ‘think brunnette’ or have ‘internalized gingerness’. Any crack in the structure will be levered into a chasm by a skilled attacker, as RH did.

But if we make the absolute statement that everyone has a right to speak, that no-one should be treated worse than anyone else, regardless of their identity, then there are no cracks in the moral structure. There’s nothing to be finnessed or argued.

Only communities that make such a commitment will be robust under attack by a skilled manipulator.