Jumping to conclusions

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/wayoflife/12/07/suicide.shunning.ap/index.html
Let's get this out of the way right of the bat: I'm not saying that what the people accused did was acceptable or shouldn't be punished. I'm saying that they're being persecuted for a crime that NO ONE has proven they've committed. Innocent until proven guilty, due process, so on and so forth. I could rant about that kind of thing all day, but that wouldn't be like me. It'd be bland and unoriginal. Instead, I'm going to write about how people come to these kinds of ideas. Read this with your best southern drawl, because it took place in Texas.


"Hey, Billy Bob. Did you hear about that kid what killed herself?"
"No, really, Joe? I can't believe it!"
"Yeah, I heard from our friendly neighborhood person with a grudge against the Drew family that it was because of the Drews' kids and their fancy intranet lies that she up and killed herself."
"Well, then, it must be true!"
"Let's go ostracize 'em! We don't have evidence, but we don't need any! We're southerners, and that's what we do! Yee-haw!"

That was obviously a complete dramatization, with the obligatory southerner joke, but the point was not 'southerners are dumb,' it was 'people come to conclusions that may or may not be true based on hearsay, and it ends up hurting others, justly or unjustly.'