Tarot card reader being sued
Ashley Guillard, a Tarot reader on TikTok, claims that the students who were murdered at the University of Idaho were killed by a professor at the school. She bases this on her Tarot readings.
At the time of the killings, the professor was out of the state with her husband. The police had responded to these TikTok claims by affirming that the professor was not a suspect. She did not know any of these students, nor had they been in any of her classes. More recently, someone else was arrested for the crime.
Nevertheless, Ashley Guillard sticks to her claims, has made several videos about this, and promotes the theory that the professor killed all four students because she had been having an affair with one of the women and the woman was going to expose her. (Secret affairs seems to be the go-to motive for conspiracy theorists these days.)
Naturally, the professor is rather distressed and fears for her safety and her reputation. She has had to install security devices at her home. And of course, she is suing.
Guillard claims that once she gets into court and "connects the dots" for the police, they will all see things her way and arrest the professor.
My reactions to this:
1) If you think you have evidence that someone has committed a crime, you go to the police and privately communicate what you know to them, so they can integrate your information with what they already know. You don't broadcast your theory to the world, unless this is all about self-promotion, which of course it is.
2) Tarot cards are of course not admissible as court evidence, but neither is simply "connecting the dots" by spinning a theory of what MIGHT have happened. You need hard evidence to corroborate your theory. Otherwise it is just hearsay. Guillard seems to have little understanding of how courtrooms work.
3) I have to wonder whether the world of online communication has made people so disassociated from the real world that this woman has no sense of how hurtful her TikTok performance is, that she really is causing harm to someone.
4) Personally, I put no stock at all in Tarot cards, palm readings, horoscopes, or the like. But the people I know who do take this seriously never go to this extreme, of claiming they are getting such specific information out of this kind of activity. They are interested in what insights these things might give them about themselves, not predictions about what other people are doing. So it seems to me that even within the "Tarot world", Guillard has one hell of an ego.
5) I am a professor, and I am very aware that anyone who is a teacher, minister, coach, counsellor, is just one false accusation away of having their lives ruined by someone claiming knowledge of an inappropriate relationship. (Yes, sexual abuse and harassment are very real, and they are disgustingly evil, and I condemn that behavior as strongly as anyone does. What I am saying in this post in no way diminishes the seriousness of that problem.) So yes, I am very angry at Guillard.
At the time of the killings, the professor was out of the state with her husband. The police had responded to these TikTok claims by affirming that the professor was not a suspect. She did not know any of these students, nor had they been in any of her classes. More recently, someone else was arrested for the crime.
Nevertheless, Ashley Guillard sticks to her claims, has made several videos about this, and promotes the theory that the professor killed all four students because she had been having an affair with one of the women and the woman was going to expose her. (Secret affairs seems to be the go-to motive for conspiracy theorists these days.)
Naturally, the professor is rather distressed and fears for her safety and her reputation. She has had to install security devices at her home. And of course, she is suing.
Guillard claims that once she gets into court and "connects the dots" for the police, they will all see things her way and arrest the professor.
My reactions to this:
1) If you think you have evidence that someone has committed a crime, you go to the police and privately communicate what you know to them, so they can integrate your information with what they already know. You don't broadcast your theory to the world, unless this is all about self-promotion, which of course it is.
2) Tarot cards are of course not admissible as court evidence, but neither is simply "connecting the dots" by spinning a theory of what MIGHT have happened. You need hard evidence to corroborate your theory. Otherwise it is just hearsay. Guillard seems to have little understanding of how courtrooms work.
3) I have to wonder whether the world of online communication has made people so disassociated from the real world that this woman has no sense of how hurtful her TikTok performance is, that she really is causing harm to someone.
4) Personally, I put no stock at all in Tarot cards, palm readings, horoscopes, or the like. But the people I know who do take this seriously never go to this extreme, of claiming they are getting such specific information out of this kind of activity. They are interested in what insights these things might give them about themselves, not predictions about what other people are doing. So it seems to me that even within the "Tarot world", Guillard has one hell of an ego.
5) I am a professor, and I am very aware that anyone who is a teacher, minister, coach, counsellor, is just one false accusation away of having their lives ruined by someone claiming knowledge of an inappropriate relationship. (Yes, sexual abuse and harassment are very real, and they are disgustingly evil, and I condemn that behavior as strongly as anyone does. What I am saying in this post in no way diminishes the seriousness of that problem.) So yes, I am very angry at Guillard.
