Pick Yourself Up
Don't lose your confidence if you slip
Be grateful for a pleasant trip
And pick yourself up
Dust yourself off
Start all over again
Confidence is good. A confidence game is bad.
A confidence game is when a person defrauds a victim of their
money, property, or information through tricks. The perpetrator is able to
defraud the victim of their possessions through gaining the victim's trust. https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/confidence_game
So how do con(fidence) men gain victims trust? They tell the victims
a plausible lie to confuse the victim. Unfortunately
it is far to easy to confuse some people.
Many similar sounding concepts are not the same, such as mean and mean,
or effective tax rates and marginal tax rates, but to confuse the victim they are treated
as if they are the same. Also some lies
that sound convincing, but are provably false are told. These lies can include:
·
“The
enemy of my enemy is my friend”. Oh, yeah!
That must mean that Sadam Hussein who was the enemy of USA's enemy Iran was
our friend. That must mean that Stalin whose
enemy was Hitler, was the USA’s friend, etc.
·
“Extremism
in defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue.” Extremism is ALWAYS
a vice. Moderation is ALWAYS a virtue,
as is liberty and justice. The ends never
justify the means.
·
“Government
is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.” Government policies
might be the problem, but government itself is not the problem. Yes, I know, Ronald Reagan, said it so it
must be true, but it wasn’t his microphone either. That microphone belonged to Bob Molloy. https://www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2015-12-05/meet-the-microphone-ronald-reagan-paid-for-at-the-famous-debate-in-nashua
·
“I
read it on the internet, so it must be true.” There is even a State Farm Insurance TV commercial making fun of this one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DZbSlkFoSU
Don’t be fooled. Trust but verify. Always check the facts, cut the cards, and
kick the tires.
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