I've had character assassination on my list of topics for weeks now.

But I hadn't gotten around to it because it didn't feel particularly relevant to my life, and I tend to be the most drawn to topics that are relevant to my life at a given moment,

whether they're relevant because of recent experiences or they're relevant because because a topic is heavy on my mind for whatever reason. Character assassination

was kind of on my mind, but not heavily on my mind.

So just sort of sat there on my list of topics collecting dust.

But for some reason, the universe wants me to make this episode because it made the

topic incredibly relevant in my personal life recently. So now here we are, making this

episode. I think I might have accidentally manifested this topic.

So that's kind of unfortunate. You know, I don't think manifesting character assassination is fun.

So whoops, but regardless, here we are talking about

character assassination.

So, before we begin, let's discuss what character assassination is.

It is the malicious and unjustified harming of a person's good reputation. I think character assassination can come in two main forms.

Number one, it can come in the form of rumors, you know, a completely fabricated story that doesn't

have an ounce of truth in it that's created simply to harm someone's reputation, right? A

complete lie, a complete false story.

And then the second type I would say is a dramaticized negative version of the truth. So this is sort of like taking a little piece of truth

and distorting it and twisting it into something that is far more negative and defamatory

than what the truth actually is. I would argue this second type of character assassination is a bit more complicated and messy because it does have a slight root in

reality you know it's not this complete fabrication

it is taking a teeny piece of truth

and turning it into something that is false

...