Werewolf Insurance

In honor of the Halloween season we’re going to talk about fringe, frivolous and fun insurance.  Add fraud for another fancy far out f word.

https://www.usatoday.com/money/blueprint/insurance/most-unusual-insurance-policies/

Also, Google “Werewolf Insurance”, and what you’ll get are some actual insurance companies talking about Spooksafe Insurance.

What we have here is a combination of Pet Rocks, actual insurance marketing and the power of people being complete and utter idiots on full display.  There’s a bit about alien abduction insurance in here which ties in to the last bit.

I was around when the Pet Rock fad was going on, where you got a rock and an instruction manual on how to take care of it.  Everyone I knew that was at least aware of it if not actually owning one had the good sense to realize it’s just a joke.  If you’re a typical person (meaning more faith in humanity than I have) you would instantly dismiss the idea of Werewolf Insurance being a real thing.  I am so skeptical that the thought of someone who is at a point they Google “werewolf insurance” is maybe actually thinking it might be a good idea.

Successful actual insurance is an offer to supplement you in time of need, with the hope of never actually having to pay out on the terms listed in the policy.  Going back to the USA Today article they talk about bedbug insurance.  Arguably, this is something that could have real value.  And it’s buried amid some fringe insurance content that’s in Pet Rock joke territory.  The Spooksafe Insurance indicates it’s all a joke, but now that we have your attention, here’s real insurance.

I find the whole mix of different types of insurance found by Google searches to be a typical misinformation mix.  Some things are factual, but need more context.  Like sitting down with an agent or a phone conversation.  Some things are real, but kind of weird.  Anything to fill an underdeveloped niche like bedbugs.  And some things that are so weird that a normal person wonders why anybody would think that people might take it seriously.

I knew of someone that got busted by their HOA for excessive water usage.  She paid up when maintenance people found out she had rigged the toilet to run 24/7.  Her reason?  Demons in the pipes.  That’s the kind of person that Googles werewolf insurance for real.  The alien abduction insurance story I promised?  There’s a case where an insurance provider got worried that they might actually have to pay out.  Not because there was an actual abduction, but worried that a jury might award the insured regardless of the “it was just a joke defense”.  That’s the reason the laws usually reference “a reasonable person.”

And with the alien abduction insurance stories, we have a publicity stunt incident.  The fake insured party with the manufactured evidence of an alien claw in cahoots with the insurer.  It worked, the story made the news, and now it’s on the internet, waiting for people who Google werewolf insurance to find.

The people that dismiss crank/grift magnetism content on the internet with “nobody is stupid enough to believe that” do not realize the power of confirmation bias.  A wide variety of different types of insurance available?  Of course werwolf insurance is just plain stupid.  But if somebody comes up with chemtrail insurance, sign me up!

Gematria is as much about marketing the other ideas associated with it as it is about the gematria itself.  Old ideas can be rebranded any time as long as there’s a crowd of people showing how susceptible they are to confirmation bias present themselves.  Gematria believers do Google searches on what they personally believe.  Then they talk about them on the internet.  Then they get attention for their “good ideas” even those idea are incompatible with others “good ideas”.  And the wolves, or rather werewolves, descend on the flock of sheep to see which ones are willing to up their game and cough up money for ludicrous insurance policies.

The evolution of confirmation bias.  It’s not just searching for the content you believe in anymore.  It’s that your sources never can agree on exactly what’s going on and you just dismiss the incompatibility and hypocrisy to focus on your beliefs.