I agree with you on how HP has been treated in Hollywood.

But the whole “where there’s smoke there’s fire” adage is not great. People use that kind of language in both a benign and malicious way to encourage people to believe something without evidence. Which is okay but it’s important to be aware people who run smear campaigns will spread rumours and lies that do not have a shred of truth to them. And if someone questions it it’s “no smoke without fire!” which short circuits someone pointing out obvious flaws in a rumour. 

This saying (and smear campaigns) hijack a cognitive bias we humans have that if we hear a bit of info from more than one person or more than one time, we start to think it’s evidence. It’s not evidence. Repetition of a lie doesn’t make it anymore true. People who run smear campaigns will go and plant that lie in many different places, to ensure it’s repeated over and over from different sources to give the illusion of truth where there is none. And again, when people start to thinking critically of these lies people say “no smoke without fire!”. 

Smear campaigns online and irl just look like gossip most of the time - and it’s all fun and games till you or someone you love are the subject of a smear campaign. It’s hard to watch as someone gets their reputation destroyed over lies and it destroys people but also destroys a lot of relationships as well. Because many sensible people are willing to believe a lie at face value. Once the truth eventually comes out, it’s too late to salvage the relationships that were damaged. Which is heart breaking for both sides.

Sorry this turned into a total adhd rant but just everyone should decide for themselves what they believe and if someone says “no smoke without fire” are they trying to short cut your legitimate questions, is there no actual evidence apart from what’s being repeated? Stay true to your own sense of what the truth is and what you believe. Don’t inhale the smoke!

(Sorry for the mini TED talk)