In the good old days, boy we all miss them don’t we (?), we could expect and rely on trying to keep our elderly family members safe from fraud. Grandma, that’s not actually a Nigerian prince. Old people are great targets for affinity fraud. Their tribe that they identify with is well established. And sadly their cognitive ability is in decline. There used to be a quaint old thing called a phone book where scammers would deliberately search out old fashioned names like Ruth or Silas instead of Jennifer or Craig to improve their chances of hitting a susceptible target.
A classic example of affinity fraud is religious groups, where it’s a given that a set of them will have enough confirmation bias to not only fall for the latest bogus fad (diet, mechanical device that’s useless, etc…) and not just stop there. It’s time to spread the good news to the rest of the tribe. And the scammers hope to keep it going as long possible when a younger, scientific oriented mind points out the problem. Does anyone still have an ozone generator running in their house?
Conspiracy theories are the biggest boon to this golden age of grifting. There’s relentless outside pressure to pick a side politically and not just be passive about it. Gung ho balls to the wall all fired up over trivial short term emotional pick a side and complain about it end of the world otherwise pick a tribe pressure.
Social media has lately exploded with some push back. And we’re not talking about the past few days lately, more like the last couple of years. The issue of tribalism and scams is completely ancient and known, but doing something about it isn’t easy. The failure of the education system is brought into focus when something like Terryology takes hold. It’s not Terrence Howard that’s the problem. It’s the Joe Rogan’s, Russell Brand’s, Donald Trump’s, and Alex Jones’s. The ones that relish in how gullible their audience is. Not just because they’ll fall for the scam once. Over and over and over, doubling down and never admitting defeat. The diehard repeat offender that is willing to put their money into big ticket scams.
The conspiracy theory has supplanted the religious scam as it bypasses the individuals need to behave like a “good and moral” person. The chance to be an aggressive, outspoken, and abrasive personality and be admired because you are now edgy and cool instead of labeled as the colossal douche bag you actually act like. This is what the Rogan’s who have guests like Terrence on their show have that smaller names in the grift pyramid don’t. Mastery over understanding the nature of the target audience.
And for now, that target is the right wing conservative. And that’s been the plan for quite some time. The younger crowd is either consciously or unconsciously putting out misinformation to muddy the waters instead of putting the brakes on their wealthy elders. Financial industry jobs are a great breeding ground for wealthy conservatives. Family money gets you into college, the math isn’t that hard. The economic idea of sitting on as much passive income as possible is not that hard. The grift and sabotage culture of big business is part of the edgy and cool work culture - where economic slavery revolving around the lower class unable to pay back debt and needing health care keeps the rich staying rich and the cycle repeating.
And since these wealthier people also tend towards religious views and never had an academic education including critical thinking (much less ethics), the scammers look through the email lists instead of phone books for the signs of the affinity fraud target. You aren’t doing enough by contributing to that Super PAC, you need to get your friends on board. And while you are at it, instead of just enjoying an occasional hunting trip, post some memes on Facebook about how the government is trying to take our guns because illegal immigrants are voting for Joe Biden. Your nephews will think it’s hilarious and admire you for your edginess. Until you’ve squandered that nest egg on Rush Limbaugh memorial collectibles that you were convinced would take off on eBay and they get zip.
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