Rumors thrive as collective critical speech precisely because no one individual can be blamed

Evidence

If gossip is based on rules of conduct, rumors must have plausible plots (even if an exaggerated relationship to what people believe is true about the world). Rumors in Deli were cumulatively critical and creatively multivocal, the medium through which the unspeakable was spoken, with no one party on hand to blame. Ironically, this never stopped Dutch and other colonial officials from trying to do so. — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1268

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distinguishes gossip (rules of conduct) from rumor (plausible plots) as distinct social speech genres — a useful analytic distinction.
• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that rumor is the medium through which the unspeakable is spoken, with no one party on hand to blame, is a genuinely dense insight about collective speech under constraint.