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What is the most dangerous thing facing our children today?Lack of consequence.[Update: One of the commenters suggested rephrasing this answer to “disproportionate consequences,” something that I agree with. However, that adds more complexity to the answer so I’m adding this merely as an addendum that I acknowledge and recognize as a valid point, but leave the remainder of the answer intact.]In August 2018, a young woman posted on Twitter that she got an internship at NASA. Her language was, to say the least, colorful.As she should, she was fired by NASA who saw the tweets. Hickam had nothing to do with it - her own behavior caused the NASA reaction.Hickam, however, was excoriated. Naomi, it appears, belongs to a subculture called “Furries,” who dogpiled (pun intended) onto Hickam, harrassing him.Despite being vilified on Twitter, he started working behind the scenes to get her another, better internship.He wrote in a blog post that has also since been deleted: “I learned she had lost her offer for an internship with NASA. This I had nothing to do with nor could I since I do not hire and fire at the agency…” He added: “She reached out to me with an unnecessary apology which I heartily accepted and returned with my own. After talking to her, I am certain she deserves a position in the aerospace industry and I’m doing all I can to secure her one that will be better than she lost.” SourceAnd"After talking to her and looking at her resume, I am certain she deserves a position in the aerospace industry and I'm doing all I can to secure her one that will be better than she lost," Mr Hickam added."I have also talked to the folks that had to do with her internship and made absolutely certain that there will be no black mark on her record. They have told me she may reapply." SourceSure enough, it happened. I can’t find the correct source now, but she has since been re-hired by NASA at a better job than the one she got.People will ask (and have), “Should she have her entire career ruined because of one mistake?”That depends on the mistake. This one is, in fact, a doozy. But the likelihood of her career being “ruined” is pure hyperbole.Should her chances at being a NASA intern be ruined? Abso-freakin’-lutely.When you screw up, there are consequences (or, at least, there should be). There is such a thing as a professional behavior, as well as professional courtesy. Not to mention good manners. She exhibited none of these, nor did her friends (who, as it turned out, were the ones that got NASA’s attention, not Hickam).She was welcome to reapply the following year, which she should have done. Whether she was accepted or not is a different story - again, actions have consequences. Nevertheless, somehow we got her rewarded, and Hickam was forced to “take responsibility.”What’s The Danger?The danger to this is not just that there were no consequences for her actions - actions that everyone agrees were over the top and not professional, even her friends (they just don’t care).In the “might makes right” world we’re living in, if you get a few hundred of your friends to dogpile on someone, you can avoid any consequences altogether. There is no incentive whatsoever to treat people well, nor expect to be treated well in return.Take, for instance, what happens when you go against your own sub-group. The reaction is swift, and not unlike excommunication. This is dangerous, because the hive-mind makes people do bad things and refuse to take responsibility for their actions. Belonging to the group becomes paramount, and avoidance of “shunning” becomes the primary motivation.All along the way, innocent people like Hickam are forced to sacrifice their own well-being and “take responsibility” for those who will not do it for themselves. This is very dangerous.At the end of the day, I wonder where Naomi’s parents are/were. Obviously they fell down on the job, bringing up this stellar example of today’s “children.”If you happen to be in the camp of Hickam, where you see a struggle to avoid being mad-rushed by a mob of enraged over-entitled groups, this is not difficult.If you happen to be in the camp of Naomi, you may not see the danger yet (because you’re safe in the bosom of your group, which can diffuse consequence and responsibility). But should your situation change, and suddenly you’re on the outs, you will be in a far more dangerous position than you realize.[Update to Add:]There have been quite a few comments (leaving aside the rabid ad hominem) ones, who seem to think that the issue at hand is Naomi’s swearing. It is not. It’s the expectation of no consequences.If you’ve read this far, perhaps a little further will clarify. Let’s play a thought experiment.Let’s say, just for the sake of argument, that someone to squeal about getting an internship at Apple.Now, Apple does hire interns. And, like Naomi, these interns are usually ecstatic about being able to have an Apple badge, get Apple business cards. There’s a cache for working at Apple.Apple also has a draconian social media policy.Say the same thing were to happen with Naomi working at Apple, and she decides that she’s going to tell some “random” person - who knows what Apple’s policy is, and is concerned that Apple will fire her for that tweet - sends her that simple, calm “Language.” posts.Because oh, you can believe Apple watches very, very closely. In fact, there’s a chance that the paperwork might already be underway before he even hit ‘send.’There’s a 90-page document that Apple sends you when you are given a contract about all the ways you can be fired. So before you are “accepted” as an intern, you are expected to read that document. By doing what Naomi (in this example) did, she had already crossed that bridge. (It’s not outside the realm of probability that NASA sent her a lot of documentation when offering her the contract as well, but let’s suppose for the sake of argument that they didn’t).Had she done what she had done to an Apple employee, and if it had been Steve Jobs that she had done it to (hey, if she wants to work at NASA and doesn’t know who Hickam is, we can use a similar analogy), you can bet that not only would she never work at Apple again, but there’s a very good chance that many, many other SillyCon Valley jobs would not be open to her ever again).The danger that I keep referring to in all of this is not the swearing. It isn’t even that people will lose their opportunities and situations. Instead, it’s the fact that this lack of respect for personal/private space will leave younger people the expectation that their behavior doesn’t matter - it’s whether or not they show up, or whether or not they should be able to do things that they want to do without repercussions.The simple fact remains, there is still - for a little while, anyway - an expectation of good behavior when it comes to public space. You can fill in any company name - Apple, Cisco, HPE, NASA, DHS, Schwab, JPMC - it won’t matter. They care very much how people see their brand and will do a lot to protect it.It is their job. It is their internship. It is not yours, it’s not mine, and it’s not Naomi’s. To believe otherwise is an exercise in delusion and self-aggrandizement.Not recognizing that is dangerous, because you only have one chance to make a first impression. What’s amazing to me is that people seem to think that there’s some kind of do-over possible when you royally screw up, and then get incensed when there isn’t and blame everyone else for their behavior.There is no “undo” key in life, and trying to force an ‘undo’ - whether by yourself or on behalf of someone in your “community” - just makes things much, much worse.In sum, it is dangerous to get to a point where there is an expectation of “no consequences” for your actions.