There is a strategy called “voter suppression” used by elites in the US to de-mobilize political activism. While it takes many forms, one of the main tactics is to have political campaigns engage in defamation and scandal-mongering against their opponents.
The apparent objective is to destroy the opponent, but the real objective is to create such a distasteful and venomous atmosphere that people turn away from activism altogether. The actual target of negative and indecent campaigns is not the individual being attacked, but rather, the attack is against activism itself.
This strategy reduces the number of people participating in the political process, which is an important goal for any power structure.
Obviously, this tactic is used against any type of activism, not only to turn voters away from voting, and not only in the US. We have seen many examples of this against figures in the Islamic movement, and again, the targets of these campaigns were not the individuals being attacked, but rather, the target was Islamic activism itself.
Whether it was when they said that Anwar Ibrahim was guilty of homosexuality, or when they said that Shaykh Anwar Al-Awlaki visited prostitutes, or said that Abu Mus’ab al-Zarqawi was a pimp who hosted lewd parties with dancing girls, or when they said that Usama bin Laden smoked marijuana and had mistresses, or when they said that Khalid Shaykh Muhammad was addicted to pornography…the objective of these slanderous campaigns was not actually to destroy those men, rather, the objective was to create cynicism, depression, and apathy among the Muslims