I'm Back: Earth, Wind & Fire (And Brimstone)

The Big Con appears to always be in play these days:

"A confidence trick or confidence game (also known as a bunko, con, flim flam, gaffle, grift, hustle, scam, scheme, swindle or bamboozle) is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. The victim is known as the mark, the trickster is called a confidence man, con man, confidence trickster, or con artist, and any accomplices are known as shills. Confidence men or women exploit human characteristics such as greed and dishonesty, and have victimized individuals from all walks of life.

The first known usage of the term 'confidence man' in English was in 1849; it was used by American press during the United States trial of William Thompson. Thompson chatted with strangers until he asked if they had the confidence to lend him their watches, whereupon he would walk off with the watch; he was captured when a victim recognized him on the street.

Confidence tricks exploit typical human qualities such as greed, dishonesty, vanity, honesty, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility and naïveté. The common factor is that the mark relies on the good faith of the con artist.

Just as there is no typical profile for swindlers, neither is there one for their victims. Virtually anyone can fall prey to fraudulent crimes. ... Certainly victims of high-yield investment frauds may possess a level of greed which exceeds their caution as well as a willingness to believe what they want to believe. However, not all fraud victims are greedy, risk-taking, self-deceptive individuals looking to make a quick dollar. Nor are all fraud victims naïve, uneducated, or elderly.

A greedy or dishonest mark may attempt to out-cheat the con artist, only to discover that he or she has been manipulated into losing from the very beginning. This is such a general principle in confidence tricks that there is a saying among con men that 'you can't cheat an honest man.'

Shills, also known as accomplices, help manipulate the mark into accepting the con man's plan. In a traditional confidence trick, the mark is led to believe that he will be able to win money or some other prize by doing some task. The accomplices may pretend to be strangers who have benefited from performing the task in the past."

Whether in politics or religion, our society runs on scams - especially NewAge or "spiritual" cons - I hear it all the time, in large and small ways:

"I consider myself a fairly open person and I've had my fair share of aromatherapy, shiatzu massage and reflexology."

Classic BS. "A fairly open person"? Try more like Madonna in heat. With an equal amount of brains:

"The term ‘pseudoscience’ refers to statements, beliefs or practices that are presented as being based in science when in reality they are not. Plainly stated, the word pseudoscience means ‘fake science.’  Magic healing crystals, spirit channeling, and  homeopathy are all types of pseudoscience - they are all fake science."

As that "aromatherapy" quote shows, the shills (who are usually not too bright) are the worst, since they give themselves credit for being wrong. Once they realize they, too, have been taken, they are usually so embarrassed (about the magnitude of what they've done - my money! - and what's been revealed about themselves - I'm an idiot!) you can forget about a confession, to having been used, ever emerging - which leaves the door open for the con to continue elsewhere, to take in some other poor sap who doesn't know the difference between "knowing" and "believing" or "watching and seeing".



"I don't care what they say: that's the way I feel about it." (Jenny McCarthy's breasts have trained this one well. The power they held over Jim Carrey was amazing - though, admittedly, he was in closer proximity). Oh, if only they could harness their feelings for good.

"I’d go for homeopathy or reiki except I think they’re nonsense."



Yea, yea, I know - but now you're thinking and not believing - NewAgers need something they can feel that can also work against them:

"The Secret is filled [with] the same sort of ignorant, harmful and racist teachings that Esther-Hicks promotes and it is supported by media personalities and spiritual teachers."

Using one kind of NewAge con to fight another is good but the race thing is played out, and I think to focus on more specific, easily definable, and familiar forms of fraud would work better.



It would lead to all kinds of other important scams being exposed for what they are.

Like take this quote:

"To this day, many people on Wall Street make their living as 'technical analysts,' even though their methods have no more merit than homeopathy or astrology."

O.K., for instance: I think if we eliminated everything with a relationship - in any way - to homeopathy and astrology, we'd probably put an end to most of the flim flam artists and also a massive amount of related fraud-based crime. I suspect even the collapse of the Left, as a whole, once they're rooted out. At the very least, it would set the Left on the run (even more) which would be doing our nation a great service.

This mixture of NewAge fraud and politics has gone much too far already - and I haven't seen much that says I'm wrong about that, PTSD or no.

In case you haven't noticed.