lmao i have absolutely no idea.

maybe there’s a cycle here, like:

• people hear some juicy gossip and spread it
• it turns out to be false so the people who spread it now feel foolish
• those people feel resentful towards the original target for “causing” them to feel foolish
• so when some new juicy gossip comes along they are even more invested in believing it, because if the target turns out to be Bad for different reasons, it would tenuously justify contributing to the previous mob

rinse and repeat, ad nauseum