Fearful Symmetry
I’m reminded of Atticus Finch’s summation to the jury in “To Kill a Mockingbird”, where he said, in effect, that the Ewells had made their false accusations of rape against a black man in a town full of racism and intolerance in the “cynical belief that they would be believed” because of the biased climate of hate, even though all the evidence pointed to the black man’s innocence.