Robert George has a trenchant call for the unity of reasonable people in the face of the torch-and-pitchfork crowd’s endless and irrational animus:

The lynch mob came for the brilliant mild-mannered techie Brendan Eich.
The lynch mob came for the elderly florist Barronelle Stutzman.
The lynch mob came for Eastern Michigan University counseling student Julea Ward.
The lynch mob came for the African-American Fire Chief of once segregated Atlanta Kelvin Cochran.
The lynch mob came for the owners of a local pizza shop the O’Connor family.
[…]
[W]ho if anyone will courageously stand up to the mob? Who will resist? Who will speak truth to its raw and frightening power? Who will refuse to be bullied into submission or intimidated into silence?

(source: Who Will Stand? | Robert P. George | First Things–links added, PGE)

Of course, George knows that shouting futilely at the darkness is not half as effective as shaming the mob.  Nonetheless, it is important to remember that one of the basic features of mob action, of hateful incitement, is the disinhibiting effect–the intoxication–of being one of the crowd, of yielding to passions without restraint or consideration.  This is most intense among mindless people caught up in a stampede of violence, but it is easier when the disinhibiting effect of pleasing the herd is multiplied by the disinhibiting effect of pseudo-anonymous online interaction.

It is also important to understand that nothing about the way the torch-and-pitchfork crowd operates—at every level–suggests any limiting principle to their lawlessness; its only consistent principle is opportunistic nihilism.  As George says:  

Oh yes, the mob came first for the Evangelicals and the Catholics and the Latter-Day Saints; but do not be deceived: it will not stop with them. It’s true that many in the mob have a particular animus against Christians, but the point of destroying the reputations and livelihoods of the initial victims is pour encourager les autres. If you believe you belong to a group that will be given a special exemption or dispensation from the enforcement of the new orthodoxy—by any means necessary—you will soon learn that you are tragically mistaken. No one who dissents will be given a pass.

We have seen how swiftly the demands have moved from tolerance to compulsory approbation of behavior historically rejected as contrary to morality and faith by virtually all the great religious traditions of the world. And now it is not only approbation that is demanded, but active participation. And do you honestly think that we have now reached the endpoint of what will be demanded?

(source: Who Will Stand? | Robert P. George | First Things)

Now and then–now, as then–it falls to each of us to stare down our own worst instincts, to put a moment of reason between our situation and our reaction, to be correctible in conscience rather than subject to destructive passions in our mob-made “self-expression” whose intoxicating “liberation” binds us ever deeper in our slavery.

Slavery to ourselves; slavery to our milieu; slavery to the idols of the tribe; slavery to our masters, our manipulators, our devices, even our own most contemptible trolls.

As an educator in the liberal arts, it is my life’s work to compel students to face this need:  the need for reasonable people to work hard to be in touch with reality, not to be driven about by inattention, ill-considered habit, and passionate fancy.  It is why I write poetry; it is why I teach rhetoric.

God help us, perhaps some day it may be enough.  God help us.

Sometimes Prudentia must speak more firmly, just to be considered.

Does not wisdom call, does not understanding raise her voice?
On the heights beside the way,
in the paths she takes her stand;
beside the gates in front of the town,
at the entrance of the portals she cries aloud:

To you, O men, I call,
and my cry is to the sons of men.
O simple ones, learn prudence;
O foolish men, pay attention.

(source: Proverbs 8 RSVCE – The Gifts of Wisdom – Does not wisdom – Bible Gateway)