Open letter

by Émile Zola to the president of France, accusing the French government of wrongfully convicting Alfred Dreyfus for alleged espionage; and Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 "Letter from Birmingham Jail", including the famous quotation "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere".

[9] Others associate open letters with bullying, divisiveness, safetyism (suppressing ideas to ensure a reader's immediate emotional comfort), and a culture of complaining.

[6] Online open letters have some qualities in common with gossip, including the impossibility of un-saying what has been disseminated and its use by marginalized groups to complain about others.

[10] Open letters tend not to win hearts and minds, especially if there is a limited connection between the writers, the subject, and the nominal addressee.

[4] Even if the letter is badly written or does not fully or accurately reflect each signer's own views, to refuse to endorse it may be taken as complete disagreement with the general concept.