Fame, fortune and the rush of being on a moral crusade are a powerful cocktail.<p>Academia and media have essentially set up an alternative justice system which is currently being misused to settle grudges or for career or financial benefits. Once it’s there though, it can be creatively misused and let loose on all sorts of undesirables. Whistleblowers, people not criticizing Russia hard enough, government critics, etc, etc.
Sexual misconduct is <i>rampant</i> in academia. The power dynamic is beyond fucked. I know of a professor who started fucking his undergrad while married. He's now divorced, promoted to head of the department, and trying to marry his now-graduate student.<p>My SO has a PI that comments on clothes, touches arms, stares at chests, and plays abusive mind games. Why? Because he can. Because a graduate student can't do anything about it without derailing their career. And professors don't do science, the grad students do. This is the root cause of the replication crisis. "Follow up on this fraudulent study because it helps my network. No, you can't do real science."