Mobs aren't a new thing. You've seen countless numbers all throughout human history. Remember when a mob came for two angels in Sodom and God nuked them from orbit?
I think about that a lot.
The thing about mobs is that they have an excess of things like strength, influence, intimidation, and force, but what they don't have is common sense. If a mob wants blood, they'll find a way to get it, whether the person being targeted deserves it or not. The mob doesn't care because a mob is the most animalistic part of the human brain, brought out by our pack mentality. Our souls might be of an entirely different plane of existence, but our bodies are not, and our advanced ape brains become more ape-like within a mob situation.
Ever seen a rioter try to articulate how destroying a local business or assaulting innocents is going to improve anything? They very rarely can.
Of course, upon the invention of the social media platform, a different variation of the mob appeared. Now, instead of having to leave your home and venture out into the streets to chant, burn, and harm, you can just virtue signal from the comfort of your sofa. You can join up with a ton of other online dwellers and direct angry messages toward a target by the thousands. The more malicious can dig into your history, find out where you work, where your kids attend school, and try to find ways to ruin your reputation even further, and potentially your life.
For a long time, people lived in abject fear of these mobs, and cancel culture was a very serious issue in society. It still is, for the most part, but it did end up getting far better as people started to learn a very simple lesson — you never apologize to the mob.
The thing about an online mob is that it can't actually hurt you if you don't let it. If you mute them, they suddenly lose all their power to hurt you. Moreover, despite the fact that an online mob may contain hundreds if not thousands of angry people, they're still (usually) a loud minority.
You've seen that over and over again in recent history, where an online mob will huff, puff, and for all their blowing, no house ever comes down. The house had to choose to collapse. The online mob rarely ever has the power to do it themselves.
You have two instances of "how to" and "how not to" in the last week.
The "how to" moment came from American Eagle. As Bonchie reported, AE released a statement addressing the rending of clothing and gnashing of teeth over Sydney Sweeney's jeans ad, which the permanently online rage-addicted left called "Nazi Propaganda."
As I said earlier, mobs are oftentimes hypocritical. In the case of the Sweeney ad, this is just blatant anti-white racism and anti-conventional beauty standards. They not only don't want to see white skin celebrated in any capacity at all, but they also don't want to see anything resembling the traditional idea of beauty being approved of. A look has to be a political statement to be approved of by these people, and society is pretty sick of it overall. Thus, the Sweeney ad was born.
Read: The Outrage Around Sydney Sweeney's Ad Is Unadulterated Racism
Read: Society Is Ditching Its Aversion to Beauty to Spare Those Who Intentionally Lack It
AE's move was the right one. They didn't cave. They didn't bend. They simply stated that this is Sweeney's story about her jeans and celebrate how people wear their own jeans. End of story.
American Eagle’s first statement since they launched the Sydney Sweeney campaign. pic.twitter.com/IQM8qfm5Vd
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) August 1, 2025
This is great because now, what can the mob do but be full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. The wind is gone from their sails. They'll continue to complain, but mostly to each other, and no one can pay them any mind except to laugh at their impotent rage.
Now, let's look at the "how not to."
Meet Joey Swoll, a man who was celebrated as an uplifting person who often came down on people for making others' gym experience and pursuit of health and well-being to be something negative. Swoll was the "good guy," always pushing others to be their best selves, and not in a shallow, self-absorbed modern context, but in a very real, physical and emotional context.
Then, upon the death of Hulk Hogan, he celebrated the wrestler with a post of his own where he cosplayed as Hogan's wrestling persona. Suddenly, his account was awash in angry comments from leftists pointing out all of Hogan's past social sins and telling him that he was celebrating a horrendous racist and fascist.
Of course, Hogan wasn't a perfect man and had a lot of very real issues during his life, some of them moral. That said, he was a positive force in the world and, in the end, gave his life to Christ and ended up being someone who truly was a good person. This doesn't matter to the perpetually angry leftist, who only saw Hogan for his flaws and the fact that he was a Trump supporter.
After receiving the outrage, Swoll bent the knee and apologized for his post.
Influencer Joey Swoll posts a groveling apology for praising Hulk Hogan. He thanks the leftist trolls for “educating” him. Absolutely pathetic. Inexcusable to cave to the woke mob at any time, but to cave to them in 2025? Baffling.
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) July 29, 2025
pic.twitter.com/0Tnd1kziuv
Of course, the left isn't accepting his apology, but is reveling in his obedience. I won't go through them, but you can take a guess at what they're saying based on the fact that you've seen it a million times before. The apology isn't good enough. It's inauthentic unless he goes further and proves he's learned his lesson.
It's never about the apology, it's always about the control. Swoll's (formerly) influential account should be used as their mouthpiece, or else he's canceled.
Sadly, Swoll canceled himself and has set the ceiling for his own career. The goodwill he had with people who agreed with his takes on gym etiquette and moral action left the moment he caved to those who consistently hold up immorality as a virtue. The same people who believe a person's social sins should define them their entire lives but suggest proven immorality is a societal positive have no business telling us what is right and wrong, and yet Swoll just effectively gave them his endorsement by seeking their approval.
He didn't just endorse that, he endorsed a culture of unforgiveness unless submission comes with it, and even then, forgiveness is always something you chase but never receive.
Moreover, Swoll's mistake is in thinking the mob has a static moral compass. They don't.
What is a sin today may very well be celebrated tomorrow, because the mob is fickle. Its wants and desires change with the wind, so giving them anything is a wasted action.
A mob is not a rational entity. It doesn't reason. Nuance isn't something it wants to understand, but more over, it doesn't have the capacity to.
Bowing to a mob doesn't help anyone, it only hurts you and the society that the mob is trying to tear apart.
Never bend the knee.
