Not too long ago, an off-duty flight attendant discovered that her neighbor on a Tampa to Los Angeles flight was a musical celebrity. Having recently lost her daughter to brain cancer, she suggested an impromptu performance to raise money for cancer research. The musician immediately agreed to the request — he strolled down the aisles with his instrument, passing the hat for donations that quickly doubled the $1,000 goal.

All that would seem innocuous enough. But, as is common on the internet, this anodyne act of charity became the grounds for abuse.

Why this was the case will make sense when the name of the musician is revealed — a figure so universally reviled that to utter a word in his defense is to invite social ostracism: Kenny Gorelick, aka “Kenny G,” or “the weasel-toned saxophonist,” as he was referred to by the New York Times. So toxic are the sounds he emits that an encounter with them constitutes “torture” — the aural equivalent of the United Airlines assault of one of its passengers, which had occurred only a few days before.