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]
