Platner and The Purity Trap:

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8. These smears are also structured to incite mob mentality.

Start with a drip drip, then pile on everything you can possibly dig up without looking past the surface. Release in rapid succession so there's no time for individual reports to be scrutinized. Cue outrage at "nothing 'disqualifying' in isolation, but look at the number of them!"

The goal is to incite a mob mentality. Cue the pitchforks and torches.

A mob doesn't stop and think. A mob doesn't take time to seek more information or put into context. A mob doesn't consider the human capacity for transformation. A mob doesn't call for deeper investigation of reports.

No. A mob grows on it's own momentum. Emotional contagion takes hold. As the mob forms people are thoughtlessly pulled in. As more join the mob, it's the classic snowball. If all these people are out there with pitchforks and torches, there MUST be a damn good reason. No need to stop, think, learn more, or evaluate.

Had the Senate not succumbed to mob mentality in December of 2017, who knows? We might have had President Franken in 2020. At 68 years old there wouldn't be much of a question about whether he should run again at 72. Biden was a very good president, but I suspect that if that alternate future had come to pass, Franken would have been a hell of a force.