You don’t have to argue with gossip. Just stop passing it along. It dies faster than you’d think.

Gossip needs carriers more than it needs believers. Every story about somebody has to be handed on in order to survive, and the chain is made of ordinary people who each tell themselves they are only mentioning it. Declining to be a link does more than defending the person would, and it requires no confrontation with anybody.

Next time something lands in your lap about someone, let it stop there. You do not have to lecture whoever told you, just change the subject and do not repeat it. Watch how fast a story runs out of road.