What are the most damaging claims you can make about someone in our society? The ones that would truly damage – if not ruin – the reputation of anyone they were levelled against.
There is “murderer”, I suppose. “Paedophile”, definitely. And then there is “racist”. All are highly reputationally destructive, especially if asserted repeatedly.
But notice that there is a difference between these charges. The first two can be fought in a court and can be easily disproved if they are wrong. If someone claimed, online or off, that you had murdered someone, then you could take them to court for slander or libel and it could be shown in court that you had not in fact murdered anyone. They would have to prove that you did, and if they couldn’t, then they would be in trouble. The same goes for the charge of paedophilia. If someone made that charge against you, it would be possible to sue them and they would be shown in court to have made a baseless claim.
