The Psychological Phenomenon Behind the Partisan Response to Roseanne Barr and Samantha Bee

This is the primary danger of reactance; it is devoid of positive principle, and is, as the name would suggest, entirely reactionary. It is not about an actual threat to our freedom so much as it is about who is doing the threatening. When confronting subjects with the exact same threat, researchers found that their participants only demonstrated reactance when the threat came from someone they perceived as an "other." If it came from someone they perceived as similar, subjects didn't even consider it a threat. This is precisely the same sort of behavior shown with Roseanne and Samantha Bee; if they're one of "ours," it's "just a joke," but if it's one of "theirs," it's offensive and ought to be punished.