Why do people engage in smear campaigns and can the victim ever recover?

Been there and done that! Ignoring is about all you can do. People know who she is and what she stands for…let each figure it out for themselves. Some will believe it and others will not. Not much you can do!

People love gossip – except when it’s about them…I always hope the Karma bus catches up with them at some point. and it will..and they do it because they’re bored, lack inspiration, real meaning and passion.

oh, back to your question, some people are in love with a smear campaign because of their own miserable state of mind. Little people do this…and usually, everyone knows who they are! In the scheme of thing, “they are a miserable little scurvy little spider weaving their web!”

You can stand up for her whenever you hear the smear repeated. You can chllange others to stand up for her too.

You can try to track down the source of the smearing and stop them. If you know who’d doing it, name them and challenge whoever is repeating it to stop doing so.

Your friend should ignore it, but have people working behind the scenes on her behalf.

“Why do people do it?” is a simple question to answer. They do it because it is so often so effective at shutting up the target, regardless of the truth of the allegations. And in some cases and groups the “cult of personality” helps this stuff gain momentum to boost the leaders’ popularity. (Both Democrats and Republicans frequently use these tactics, for example. Not all Democrats and not all Republicans, I hasten to add—I don’t want to be accused of that kind of thing myself.)

And we’re all victims, unfortunately, either directly or indirectly—even those who sign onto this form of abuse. That is to say, facts are true regardless of “spin”, obfuscation and prevarication, and attempting to deny, cover up or “pretend away” truth by lying just stops us from knowing the world better as it really is. That applies to people, too. If I believe that you’re a no-good so-and-so because of various lies that have been spread about you, then it prevents me from knowing the real you—and I apparently believe things about the world that aren’t so.

Targets of this kind of abuse can eventually have their reputations restored, but too often that restoration is posthumous.

Reminds me of my favorite dirty trick in a campaign.
Back in the 1968 Presidential campaign, Humphrey and McCarthy were neck and neck in a primary election state.
Two days before the election, a mailer arrived at the addresses of the residents of that state. The mailer said something to the effect that Humphrey was a convicted child molester, and the voters should be aware of that before voting. The mailer ended by saying it was from the McCarthy campaign.
Humphrey came in second in voting. McCarthy came in third. That primary was won by the actual sender of that mailer, the Wallace campaign.

@filmfann very good answer!

Why do people engage in such things? Well, people who do this do it because they want to. It’s that simple. In the end, the person being smeared will hopefully learn who his or her real friends are. You, on the other hand? You can stand up for the person being smeared. You can also challenge the claims of the people who are doing the smearing if you feel it necessary. You can also cut off contact with them if it’s at all possible.

Something else to consider is that there may actually be people who agree with you, but are too afraid to speak up. Maybe these people are afraid of being looked down on. Maybe they join in to prevent themselves from getting picked on. Maybe it’s just easier for them to “join in with the crowd” to fit in. Scapegoating someone for no good reason is just not cool. Neither is jumping on a bandwagon to pick on someone else just because other people are doing just that to that same person. It seems like a way to get the attention off of themselves.

(Note: My answer to your question is assuming that this woman has done nothing wrong. If she actually has, I may have a different attitude towards the whole thing).

@filmfann Wow, that’s really interesting.