Watching an old episode of the delightful TV pulp The Wild, Wild West that used faked voodoo and a wide array of 19th-Century quackery as plot MacGuffins, which the intrepid heroes West and Gordon mostly scorn from the outset, it struck me:
It's hard to believe how skeptical a people we once were.
A lot of us will fall for about anything these days.
At the same time, we were okay with cavern complexes in bayou country, so there’s that. ;)
ReplyDeleteThere is the odd property of people to believe the guy that tells you the people you don't like are lying to you. Even if that person is also lying to you.
ReplyDeleteIt's a classic con- by pointing out one scam, you build trust and are thus able to pull your own. Even if the first group isn't actually lying.