The villains of social media over the weekend were actors Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher because, during the rape trial of actor Danny Masterson, they pleaded with a judge to have mercy on their old friend and colleague, who was found guilty on two counts of rape and is facing 30 years in prison.

Kunis and Kutcher weren’t defending Masterson’s actions, calling for his acquittal, or casting doubt on the testimony of Masterson’s victims.

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The folks vocally and publicly angry at Kunis and Kutcher include folks on the Right who see Hollywood as a massive cartel that serves to promote and protect sexual abuse and deviancy — and plenty of folks on the Left. The anger from the Left at Kunis and Kutcher is notable, given how recently criminal justice reform and lenience in prosecution was a cause celebre over there.

Calling for leniency in policing, prosecution, or sentencing is, by definition, asking for mercy for people who do very bad things. (I think some people miss this fact, believing our prisons are bursting with folks caught possessing marijuana or stealing a loaf of bread to feed a starving child.)

The anti-Kunis-Kutcher passion is not an isolated thing. Follow the center-left on social media, and you’ll see how much of the passion there is for tough prosecution and against mercy or lenience.

Here’s a liberal state senator angry that Virginia’s governor pardoned a father who lost his cool after the county school board, for political reasons, shielded a sexual predator who then assaulted his daughter — and tried to cover it all up.

And here’s a popular “Blue Virginia” account mocking that same father for being taken down by police.

Then zoom out a bit and consider how prosecutors are becoming the political heroes on the Left and how locking up all the bad guys on the other side is all the rage.

And convictions of the Jan. 6 participants are now a central part of the liberal media diet.

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This isn’t brand new, of course.

We don’t have to debate how many years Masterson or Enrique Tarrio should serve, to note the pattern here. The passion on the Left these days is not for mercy but for punishment.