‘Want to know the purpose of smear campaigns and the stealthy techniques bullies use to ruin your good name? Here is a detailed description of the process and why these evil tactics work so well.
Smear campaigns are destructive to your reputation and can even ruin your life.
Therefore, in this post, you will learn the detailed tactics bullies employ in their smear campaigns so that you can better guard yourself against them.
Once you learn this very important information, you will will better able to defend yourself against them and save your good name.
This post is all about smear campaigns, the tactics bullies use to launch them, and what you can do to successfully defend yourself against them.
Smear Campaigns and the importance of reputation
“Reputation is the cornerstone of power.” – Robert Greene
So, why do bullies attack your reputation?
Simply put, they do it to strip you of power. Bullies know that, once your reputation is gone, you’re defenseless and extremely vulnerable to attack. In other words, they know that if they can poke holes in your reputation, they won’t have to work so hard to bring you down.
Why? Because now, they have public opinion on their side. They can then stand back and watch with glee as widely held perceptions finish you off.
Moreover, after they trash your good name, bullies can freely attack you from all directions. Even worse, you’re at the mercy of virtually everyone around you.
How do Smear Campaigns work?
It always starts subtly.
So, Where do they begin?
1. They start by planting seeds of doubt about your character in the minds of others.
They may cast doubt on you by doing something as subtle as dropping a suggestion. Doubt is a powerful tool. It sets the stage for the next stages of the smear.
2. Smear Campaigns:
They spread rumors and lies.
All it takes is one little rumor- just one!
Bullies are proof that offense is the best defense. Drawing first blood is always best because the target can only respond in either one of two ways.
1. He could deny the rumors, even produce evidence that proves his innocence of the accusations.
2. He could ignore the lies and blow his accusers off with a “whatever” and walk away laughing.
However, either way, people will still look at the target with suspicion. If the target defends himself and produces evidence to the contrary, the prevailing thought will be,
“There must be some truth to the rumors, otherwise he wouldn’t be defending himself so vehemently.”
If he ignores the lies and waves his accusers away with a laugh, others will be even more suspicious of him because they’ll think that he has something to hide and is only playing it cool.
Bullies know that if they instigate rumors the right way, there’s a possibility that they can get the target so enraged and rattled that while defending himself, he ends up making a truckload of mistakes.
Also, if this happens and the target hasn’t yet established a reputation, the smear campaign will work all the more in the bullies’ favor.
Bullies spread lies and rumors by making things up, leaking info they hear, or spreading ideas. Next, they’ll fade into the background because they know that with everything put together, whatever lies they spread will stick.
3. They’ll Repeat the same lies.
In other words, the bullies use repetition. They repeat the same rumor over and over again until it sticks. And sadly, once repeated enough times, more and more people will believe it and it will become the truth even if it is a bald-faced lie.
In fact, by then, others will want to believe it.
And, once the bullies have done their part, they can sit back and let the rumor mill do the work for them. It’s that easy! There’s no getting away from public opinion no matter how false or unjustified it is.
4. Bullies will provoke you to trick you into living up to the rumors.
If bullies spread a rumor that you’re mentally imbalanced, they may provoke some kind of emotional reaction from you. They may do this by taunting you.
Moreover, they may also provoke you by hitting you first, hoping you’ll hit them back so they can use it as proof that you really are unhinged.
Smear Campaigns: What happens when Your Reputation takes a hit?
1. People will negatively judge any talents, actions, or contributions, good or bad.
Here’s how this works.
Two different people can do the exact same thing the exact same way. However, each person’s reputation will decide whether the action is brilliant or terrible.
In other words, it’s not what you do. It’s who you are when you do it. It’s not the action itself, but who the person is that does it.
A person who’s well-liked and has a stellar reputation can write an essay, and others will deem it a brilliant piece.
However, let a person everyone despises write the exact same essay, and others will only view it as a worthless piece of garbage that isn’t even worth reading.
Thank God for pseudonyms!
This brings me to the final conclusion:
Reputation can affect all areas of your life. It can be the difference between having success or failure- in everything!
The Character, Chris Chambers in the movie, “Stand by Me”
Remember the character, Chris Chambers, in the movie “Stand by Me.” Although he was a great kid, he was considered a rogue and a thief.
Moreover, during the scene where he was crying to his friend, Gordy, Chris told him about how he got his bad name and wished he could go somewhere where no one knew him.
During the conversation, the character of Chris Chambers, played by River Phoenix, tearfully tells Gordy that a member of staff took the lunch money out of the teal. However, he got blamed for it solely because of his family name. It was heartbreaking to watch.
And sadly, that happens a lot. In a majority of cases, targets must leave the school, company, or community to heal and to rebuild their lives.
Smear campaigns have stages.
Stage 1:
The bullies will cast doubt on your character and drop suggestions. Also, they’ll spread lies and rumors. They will then provoke you. You blow them off for a while but the bullies are relentless. Therefore, they not only continue but escalate the harassment.
Finally, you get fed up with their crap and, out of exhaustion and emotion, tell them to go to hell in a hand basket. And there! The bullies get the reaction they’ve been waiting for.
Now, the smear campaign begins. Your bullies start by suggesting that you’d be better off if you got professional help, moved, etc . They will say that it’s for your own good to look as if they have genuine concern for you.
Next, they may drop an offhand comment here and another there. Understand that bullies need to slowly and ever-so-gradually ramp up the smears. Why? So, that what they’re doing doesn’t appear so obvious.
Character vs Reputation
In the beginning, you may have friends. Others may like or even love you. Moreover, they may try to support you and speak on your behalf.
However, that’s when the bullies will tell them, “Oh, no. There’s more to it than what he told you.”
Or, the bullies may lie to your friends by telling them that sometime in the past, you criticized them or stabbed them in the back.
Smear Campaigns Stage 2.
Now it’s time for the bullies to stand back and let the old rumor mill do its handiwork. And, sure enough, the lies become the truth. People begin reporting things to the bullies and higher-ups in the social hierarchy.
Moreover, they make false statements and accuse you of wrongs you never committed.
And as the rumors and lies spread from person to person, the bigger they grow until they sound so bizarre and outlandish they’d be fit for a horror movie.
You might say, “Aw, but they’re my friends. They’d never do that to me. They know I’m a good person, and I have a clean reputation. All I have to do is tell them my side of things, and this stuff will go away.”
However, you couldn’t be more wrong!
stage 3.
Once the rumors get around, your friends will no longer believe you to be right. They’ll only think you’re a thorn in the side with a big mouth.
Therefore, by the time the open bullying is underway, you no longer have a clean reputation.
The results of successful smear campaigns.
Now, everyone thinks you never deserved any respect or friendship. The people around you also feel that the reason you were so well-liked is that you conned your way into their hearts.
They’ll say that you put on a front, and you only weaseled your way into everyone’s good graces. The bullies and their followers may even accuse you of being a kiss-ass.
Moreover, others will make your past wins, accomplishments, successes, or accolades irrelevant. They will also maximize your mistakes and failures and add many more you didn’t make.
In other words, they will rewrite your history.
If you’re on your best behavior and others see it with their own eyes, they’ll only accuse you of being a con artist. Also, any hard evidence of your successes, friendships- anything positive, they’ll chalk it up to you being a smooth-talker who’s good at using charm to manipulate others.
And the friends that your bullies turn against you? They’ll claim that they never liked you from the start. Moreover, they’ll swear up and down that they were only kind to you because they felt sorry for you, or because you conned them.
Your so-called friends will tell others, “who you really are.” They’ll claim that the bullies you bitched about were only reacting to your sneaky provocations.
Also, they’ll say that they only agreed with you about your bullies because you fooled them into it.
Telling your side of things will do no good because they’ll never believe it anyway. Your embittered friends “may have fallen for it at first,” but now they claim to “know better.”
I want you to understand that once people’s minds are already made up, there’s no changing it.
Smear Campaigns Stage 4
Stage 4 is the late stage. Therefore, in the late stages of a smear campaign, all bystanders will become willing co-conspirators.
Gossip will be everywhere. And it brings scandal, which means to assassinate the target’s character, integrity, mental fitness, and worth as a student, worker, neighbor, and human being.
Moreover, anyone who questions or disbelieves the lies will immediately become an object of bullying as well. Nobody wants to be isolated, so this forces others to stay in line with the running narrative.
And if the target attempts to defend himself or speak out against the abuse, it will be used against him.
Unfortunately, at this stage, the only way for the target to ensure his safety and escape the abuse is to leave the toxic environment and go to a new place where he can start anew, establish new connections, and reinvent himself.
In Conclusion:
There’s still hope. Although extremely difficult, you can still salvage your reputation and change your life for the better. Here’s how.
1. If you’re a victim of vicious smear campaigns, Move to a different area.
Sometimes you must go somewhere else and start over again. It may be difficult to leave your family behind, but if you stay in the town where people judge you unfavorably, you’ll never have the chance to move forward and will always be stuck right where you are.
Why not pack your things and head for greener pastures.
2. Find a good cause to fight for and that you’re passionate about.
Any time you fight for a good cause, you will meet like-minded people who are fighting for the same purpose. Moreover, the cause could be “The Victim’s Rights Movement,” or even “The Anti-Bullying Movement.”
Whatever the cause, you will attract those who are fighting for the same things. Also, you’ll easily make positive connections with them and become life-long friends.
Although many doors get slammed shut and locked, there’s always a window to crawl through if you look for it. I guarantee it!
This post is all about smear campaigns so that you can recognize all the tactics and stages. Moreover, it will give you time to act to protect yourself.
Related posts you’ll enjoy:
2. Bullying Culture: When Bullying is the Status Quo
3. The Cycle of Bullying: Psychological Injuries and Care of Victims
4. What Not to Share at Work When You Suffer Workplace Bullying
