Gullibility

There are a lot of sayings that discus the gullibility of people.

There's a sucker born every moment, a fool and his money are soon parted, etc. etc.

The reason for this is that people are partly gullible and partly greedy.

The promise of something of value for almost nothing tends to be tempting to people, enough for many to stop being skeptical.

Now in many cases its fairly harmless, as when someone asks you for a few dollars to get food, or for carfare because they lost their wallet.

In other cases the scams are much more significant costing people their savings, their homes and their health.

It doesn't matter if the victim is vulnerable or old or sick.  In fact all those things are what helps define them as a victim.

The con men will lie right to your face and look very sincere doing it.  Its something you have to learn and avoid and one of the reasons people in big cities sometimes appear unfriendly, they can't determine if your for real or pulling a con.

Now as sad as this is, we see that politicians engage in this behavior to get elected.

Over the years some of the most outrageous lies started to get exposed by the media, but now we see so much questionable media that the legitimate media can be branded as fake news.

So bringing back manufacturing, bringing back coal, fixing trade agreements, building a wall, improving your health care and reducing your taxes while increasing defense and infrastructure were believed by enough people to matter.

The gullibility index was at an all time high and unfortunately it might be a trend.

Hey, this must all be part of God's plan - just trust those preachers!

Gullible Americans

The Washington Post ran a story concerning a bunch of things that American believe that are provably false.  I included the link before and while this article was focused on mostly political items it did include a question on autism and vaccines.

There re many other things that many Americans believe that are simply false, including things about climate change, how government money is spent, how refugees are vetted and so much more.

One would think that with the existence of the Internet where so much valid information is available and easily accessed we would have better facts at our disposal, and some do, but many can't distinguish between the phony sites and the real ones.

We also tend to believe lies that fit into our pre-conceived notions. I watch a video yesterday about some problems with millennials that had a lot to do with how they grew up using technology and failed to develop certain social skills.  Now it may be accurate or not, its that persons opinion, but the comments about the video included a number of attacks on liberals.  Now certainly phones that text and video games with chat are not some liberal conspiracy, so these commentators simply ignored most of the subject matter to make it a political issue.

In fact, we have made everything into a political issue even if it really shouldn't be one.  Climate change is not a political issue, how to deal with it might be, but the science is not up for a vote.

Similarly religious beliefs, at least in this country, are not a political issue or shouldn't be.

Trying to deny people the right to vote is not something that should be a political issue, how they vote is.

Giving sick people needed care should not be a political issue.

Its truly scary that many Americans actually believe some of the things in this article and I don't see any near term solution. 

Lying is now the best political tactic we have as long as we also troll the Internet to plant false stories supporting the lies.

Its a scary future.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/rampage/wp/2016/12/28/americans-especially-but-not-exclusively-trump-voters-believe-crazy-wrong-things/?utm_term=.b035a36c7401

Con Games

When you walk around New York or any big city you will get approached at times by strangers with a proposition that seems too good to be true.  Now as a young boy I was warned about con men and other things, but there is a certain appeal to what they offer.

Everything is great and you are guaranteed to win.  The watch is really worth thousands but he needs $50 immediately so he has to part with it.  Watch the plant pick out the right card each time, and see how easy it is.

The fact is that human nature being what it is, we think we can outsmart the con.  We can't.  Not that they are smarter than us, but they do it all the time compared to our once or twice.

Now, they had to make money doing these things or they would have stopped after a while.  Of course a lot of this has moved to the internet and once again, the idea that a Nigerian Prince has picked your name out or you have won a foreign raffle you didn't enter is sort of ludicrous but we as a people want to hope and trust and look at all that money.

Its all a con and the faster you realize that the safer you are.

Now we have a candidate who is giving the same sort of spiel that every big city hustler always has.  You are guaranteed to win, trust him, its going to be great, the other guy will pay, the product is real. What do you have to lose.

If it smells like a duck, and walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, its probably a duck.