I think it's time to address an elephant in the room. This is the little bit I know.
But there is something else that's actually more applicable. It may be a subcategory of the above, namely 'anchoring'.
I don't know much about it. From what I understand, it is a way to connect otherwise unrelated (emotional) responses when they happen to occur together often, and in particular when they occur together with a strong (emotional) response.
I've noticed that for the last 8 or so years, there has been a constant flood of harassment and abuse together with lies and false accusations. So it's very likely that this incorrectly connects (emotional) responses. So going by those responses alone to uncover the "truth" means you can essentially uncover any "truth" you want, particularly if you consider a "hidden agenda", given there has been at least 6 years of "playground" for unjustified harassment and abuse, and many, many false accusations.
So, from my understanding, this means "the water" is extremely muddied and untrustworthy, because there clearly has been a lot of manipulation going on.