28 August 2016 - false accusations 1

Adults know how to discourage trouble. When I was a kid and told on the other kids (“so-n-so threw a rock at me!”) I was regularly warned, “False accusations are a serious business.” The skillful combination of threat, victim-blaming, and laxness in investigation certainly kept trouble away from adults. Today as an adult, of course, I know that false accusations are nothing serious at all. The news reminds me every few weeks when another person is removed from a flight and interrogated for studying Arabic, or for wearing a suspicious beard. In fact, false accusations are a great way to discourage trouble. Hurry, denounce your neighbor before they denounce you!