here we have a man willing to exploit racism, willing to exploit the imagery of a noose being placed around a black man's neck [and willing, lest we not forget to keep the noose on for 40 mins waiting for the police], willing to waste police time all for personal gain.
if anyone is willing to undermine future victims it is mr smollett.
i'd say this case is most analogous to suicide contagion. british press voluntarily sign up to very stringent guidelines on how they report suicide. they won't mention methods, reasons, or go too far into a person's history. they do this as it's been shown that suicide rates cluster, esp around press reporting. [if you see a small paragraph in a local paper about a rail line being closed for an hour or two due to an accident involving a person on the line it will often = someone jumping in front of a train].
there's a huge victim narrative going on in the US. victims of crimes are given immediate platforms, there is a huge pressure to validate and believe victims without any due diligence. and vicitimhood satus is rather prized.
we saw this with the catholic school kids in MAGA caps, also.
Smollett saw a chance. a gay black man has a lot of social justice credits to cash in, if only someone would exploit this rich powerful man. if only a white supremacist could attack him.
i can imagine him pulling a reverse-neeson in the weeks before he staged his attempted lynching: wandering the streets looking a white man with a cosh so he could cash in on his marginalised credits.
Almost poetic teddy