In a society with rule of law, everyone deserves benefit of the doubt, always, until proven otherwise.
Gosh, it's almost like you're describing the entirety of high fashion.
In a society with a court of public opinion, the exact opposite is true.
...middle school?
To model ourselves after middle schoolers would be aspirational to a delusional degree.
E.g. certain Russian oligarchs winning lawsuits in West because of some legalese. It feels like „rule of law“ nowadays is used to silence the weak and doesn't apply to the powerful ones.
The main question is what's the tangent. And TBH it looks quite sad in the past decade.
Maybe it needs tear down and rebuilding from scratch?
Progress is an illusion!
There is only black and white!