There is absolutely nothing an accused person can present that would actually be considered exculpatory. Meanwhile, any and all evidence just reinforces the accuser’s trauma and truthfulness.
Ashe Schow
5 Signs You’re In The Midst Of A Moral Panic
[Salem “witches”, the satanic panic of the 1980’s and 90’s, and others are discussed in the article.
It’s not a scholarly article but it’s good enough that you can see some common patterns that would have a low chance of false positives when broadly applied.
When Prophecy Fails also applies in many ways. Read my short synopsis of the book to get the gist of it.
The political left had a firmly believed prophecy that Hillary Clinton would win the 2016 election. When that failed they made a series of new prophecies involving the evils of a President Trump administration and prophesized all the more fervently. One of the more memorable was the prediction by Nobel Economics Prize winning economist Paul Krugman on election night:
It really does now look like President Donald J. Trump, and markets are plunging. When might we expect them to recover?
Frankly, I find it hard to care much, even though this is my specialty. The disaster for America and the world has so many aspects that the economic ramifications are way down my list of things to fear.
Still, I guess people want an answer: If the question is when markets will recover, a first-pass answer is never.
All the predictions about the various investigations of President Trump and his advisors will result in his impeachment have repeatedly been proven false. But evidence cannot convince them. These people are in a state of hysteria.
As long as the Five Conditions are met they will continue to remain in their irrational state and increase the passion with every prediction that is proved false:
- There must be conviction.
- There must be commitment to this conviction.
- The conviction must be amenable to unequivocal disconfirmation.
- Such unequivocal disconfirmation must occur.
- Social support must be available subsequent to the disconfirmation.
Their numbers are growing smaller and while a good sign for the long term the short term consequences of the increased passion means there is also increased potential for violence.—Joe]
Kavanaugh’s confirmation would appear to be a smaller scale occurrence of this. If the first accuser comes forward and is shown to have no reasonable proof of her claims, they dig deeper to find more accusers – who may actually be convinced of the verity of their claims, even if patently false.
…”evidence cannot convince them. These people are in a state of hysteria.”
That is true, or rather it might be true, if you believe them. I don’t believe them. I believe that, at the mid to upper levels of the leftist hierarchy at least, they are engaged in tactical play-acting. I further believe that many of them are put through play-acting seminars, and coached in the process of agitation. This is also know as “community organizing”.
You see “hysteria”. I see feigned hysteria. Play-acting. Same surface appearance, VERY different interpretations.
That puts this into a WHOLE different category, and demands a whole different discussion.
Sure sure sure, of course; in every case of mass deception there are those on the same team who are perpetrators and those who are the dupes.
The play-acting is of course designed to be contagious and thereby actually convince some people that there is a genuine issue there. It’s the classic manipulation process of the psychopath. It’s the carefully crafted message, delivered by a well-rehearsed actor, dressed in a carefully chosen way, with all the right, well-rehearsed body language, makeup, lighting, tactical pauses in just the right places, etc. in other cases it’s just the simple, exaggerated emotionalism, screaming and carrying on, that works. Whatever it takes.
If you refer exclusively to the dupes you thus miss the all the primary issues surrounding mass deception. It’d be like “combating street crime” without ever recognizing the fact that it’s organized and that there are kingpins behind the scenes, training, financing and coordinating the under-age “street criminals”, and reaping most of the profit so as to expand the operation. Just looking at the surface (kids robbing stores or selling drugs), addressing the outward appearances, you’ll never put a dent in it.
The worst of all crimes, and the major players behind them, are protected by our own incredulity.
Those who believe the perpetrators’ lies provide an extra layer of protection. They’re the pawns, the street thugs, the cannon fodder. They’re a distraction. If you want to reach them, one method would be to show them how they’ve typically been used throughout history, and how they’re always seen as disposable by the people they serve.
But reaching a few of the pawns is only a small step. How do you go straight for the jugular veins of the primaries? Are you willing to go down that rabbit hole, into the dark networks the enemy has built and fortified for generations? Are you willing to be that one black man, as it were, infiltrating and exposing the KKK in a state controlled entirely by the KKK?
Otherwise, have a good time poking fun at the poor, clueless dupes, but it won’t accomplish a thing.
“But evidence cannot convince them.”
These are the same people who deride Christians (and exclusively Christians) for THEIR faith.