nourished rumors

Why is it that a few juicy false dirty rumors well planted and cultivated, can blind people to a thousand quietly important truths?

Whatever the quirk in the human psyche that makes it work, it is a well used clever assault technique by bullys of all sizes, from the street thug who sprinkles evocative half-truth evidence into the neighborhood, and sets up his unsuspecting victim to take the fall; to the faceless billionaire corporation that answers to no one for its actions except to the bottom line profit, doing the same kind of assault to grab some kind of power such as a technological innovative concept.

Whether it is to brew up a storm that manifests as terrible physical injury to the victim, or to utilize the strong arm of the judiciary system that cares only for appearances of things, the wider the rumor mill spreads the false words, the more power it gets; and finding the sprinkled-around confirming half-truth evidences, eventually people consider it reality, and act decisively upon it. (A Hollywood producer must be a mastermind of the control of appearances; could it be a match made in heaven ... or someplace very much lower than that?)

Then the question becomes: why does the bully do it, whether faceless or not?

It is a quirk in only a relatively few human psyches, fortunately for humanity.

It does stir up drama, to placate the fears of boredom.