Moralism and Social MEDIA.THE Ascent of Beautiful and Punitive Souls

In this essay, I begin a philosophical reflection concerning moralism on social media platforms. I am interested in explaining the negative consequences for critical debate and morality itself. To do so, I describe how this moralistic trend emerged in recent years, replacing postmodernism, and then I explain its characteristics, namely the culture of victimhood, permanent outrage and cancel culture, and the rejection of institutions. Finally, I argue that this moralism, beyond publicly displaying the “beauty of the soul” of its proponents, does not contribute to achieving genuine social justice, since, ultimately, moralism ends up discrediting morality.