According to the text of the article, this is hitting scammers of color especially hard. Systemic racism is everywhere.
25 thoughts on “On Instagram, it’s scammers vs. scammers”
Perry
"According to the text of the article, this is hitting scammers of color especially hard. Systemic racism is everywhere."
According to the article, the scammers are the people imitating the psychics and astrologers. It may be hitting psychics and astrologers of color harder, but is that the same thing as the scammers? Is Kevin Drum really calling everyone involved scammers or is he confused about who is scamming and who is legitimate (in the sense of believing their own hype)? Or is he trying to just call everyone a scammer?
Then he refers to systemic racism. I don't see how that applies here at all. Or is Drum implying that the idea of systemic racism is a scam? On what basis? I can speculate that scammers might target psychics of color because they may be less able to protect themselves or perhaps less likely to complain (and get anyone to listen to their complaints, have less resources to protect themselves). It could be systemic racism if authorities who investigate this stuff are less willing to follow through on crimes against people of color. Is that what Drum means? Or is he just being facetious? Perhaps he thinks, in his Irvine bubble, that anyone who believes in such stuff deserves what they get, even when they are deliberately targeted and cheated?
In any case, it doesn't seem like an appropriate response to a social problem.
illilillili
You should practice developing a sense of humor somewhere. Preferably not here.
arghasnarg
> or is he confused about who is scamming and who is legitimate
My first question for you would be, how do you tell the difference?
illilillili
"While some white spiritualists are getting scammed, the problem seems to be worst among Black and brown practitioners, they said."
“Historically people who work in wellness and spirituality have been ridiculed as hustlers and scammers ... We have great integrity with what we do, but we’re an easy mark.”
Maybe you just need to work on your reading comprehension skills.
Maynard Handley
Oh, so they CLAIM to have great integrity?
Well, that resolves that issue then, clearly they must be telling the truth.
DFPaul
Yes.
Special Newb
Beautiful. I love it.
Maynard Handley
Is the social problem the existence of astrologers and psychics?
Or is it that Kevin (and I) consider them to be scammers?
Enquiring minds want to know!
illilillili
Hey Kevin! Thanks for making me learn how to disable javascript on latimes.com and nytimes.com. Now I can read Krugman again!
iamr4man
If you have an Apple device you can use show reader view in the address bar to bypass the paywall. It works on The Atlantic too.
Special Newb
Can do it on Android too.
cld
Works with Firefox on Windows, most of the time but not always.
pjcamp1905
Use extension Cookie Autodelete to purge local storage and reset the counter. Not that I advocate IP piracy.
dspcole
????
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
This reminds me: Salma Hayek is lowkey the best thing about House of Gucci.
The other great thing is Adam Driver's mistress is played by Matt Damon's love interest in Stillwater, which makes HoG the second film this year in which Adam Driver cuckolds Matt Damon. (The Last Duel is obviously the other.) Now I am curious how hot John Oliver is about this.
Justin
It's time for another post on murder rates. Sure... this is the fault of those democrats who support gun control. This just makes me so mad. We're so afraid to piss off the hunters so we just put up with this nonsense. It ain't a racial thing... it's crazy effing stupid thing.
Father of the year here in Michigan.
Three students lost their lives - a 16-year-old boy who died in a patrol car en route to a hospital, and two girls, aged 14 and 17, authorities said.
Of the seven other students struck by gunfire, three of them - a 15-year-old boy with a gunshot wound to the head and two girls with chest wounds, aged 14 and 17, were hospitalized in critical condition, Bouchard said. The younger girl was on a ventilator after surgery.
The four remaining teenage victims - three boys and a girl - were listed in serious or stable condition, he said. One teacher was treated for a shoulder wound and later discharged.
Undersheriff Michael McCabe said 15 to 20 rounds were fired during the rampage, which lasted no more than five minutes.
Bouchard said the boy was armed with a 9 millimeter semi-automatic handgun his father had purchased on Nov. 26, along with three 15-round magazines. Seven live rounds remained in the gun when the youth was arrested, the sheriff said.
The boy apparently "had been shooting" with the gun before Tuesday's attack and had posted pictures of the weapon and a target he was using, according to the sheriff.
cld
If this innocent child lunatic ever gets out of being a political prisoner he has a bright future as an intern for Matt Gaetz.
DFPaul
I’m often shocked at how bad the LA Times is, but I certainly wasn’t expecting “metaphysical practitioners”. The place is owned by a doctor for gosh sakes. (The LA Times, that is.)
Special Newb
Once I told a very cute stoner girl that I thought astrology was bunk. She said that was a very ignorant thing to say and I cracked up.
I usually went with "I'm not a believer." If the girl was pretty cute, I switched to "I just don't know enough about it." I could usually get at least one date before she found me out. But then I was pretty cute myself in those days.
Maynard Handley
"Systemic racism is everywhere"
That word systemic, I do not think it means what you think it means...
(I get that the use is a joke. What's not a joke is our society being contorted like a pretzel because whining snowflakes consider every instance of bad behavior against them to be a "systemic" injustice demanding a political response.)
iamr4man
Personally I’d be much more amused if it was Jim Baker or Joel Osteen or any of those other Christian grifters (like the “pastor” of my anti-vax nephew’s church) who were getting scammed.
Maynard Handley
Why?
A grifter is a grifter. What's going on in your mind that says "white grifters should be punished, not black grifters"?
It's precisely this tolerance by a certain species of white "liberal" of crime by blacks that makes life as a poor black so unpleasant; the crime-related fear and risk is substantially worse than silly nonsense like white people using last years preferred word for non-whites rather than this year's preferred word. Exploiting the weak and dumb is vile behavior, whether done by whites or blacks.
iamr4man
I don’t know where you got the racial aspect in my post. There was none. If anything it’s that I’m more intolerant of Christian grifters. And even that would be inaccurate. Mostly it’s an intolerance for a big time grifter as opposed to small time grifters.
And I suppose I would be more intolerant of the Astrology grifters if they were involved in telling people to not get vaccinated. So yes, there is a political aspect.
pjcamp1905
I find this a difficult thing to get worked up about.
"According to the text of the article, this is hitting scammers of color especially hard. Systemic racism is everywhere."
According to the article, the scammers are the people imitating the psychics and astrologers. It may be hitting psychics and astrologers of color harder, but is that the same thing as the scammers? Is Kevin Drum really calling everyone involved scammers or is he confused about who is scamming and who is legitimate (in the sense of believing their own hype)? Or is he trying to just call everyone a scammer?
Then he refers to systemic racism. I don't see how that applies here at all. Or is Drum implying that the idea of systemic racism is a scam? On what basis? I can speculate that scammers might target psychics of color because they may be less able to protect themselves or perhaps less likely to complain (and get anyone to listen to their complaints, have less resources to protect themselves). It could be systemic racism if authorities who investigate this stuff are less willing to follow through on crimes against people of color. Is that what Drum means? Or is he just being facetious? Perhaps he thinks, in his Irvine bubble, that anyone who believes in such stuff deserves what they get, even when they are deliberately targeted and cheated?
In any case, it doesn't seem like an appropriate response to a social problem.
You should practice developing a sense of humor somewhere. Preferably not here.
> or is he confused about who is scamming and who is legitimate
My first question for you would be, how do you tell the difference?
"While some white spiritualists are getting scammed, the problem seems to be worst among Black and brown practitioners, they said."
“Historically people who work in wellness and spirituality have been ridiculed as hustlers and scammers ... We have great integrity with what we do, but we’re an easy mark.”
Maybe you just need to work on your reading comprehension skills.
Oh, so they CLAIM to have great integrity?
Well, that resolves that issue then, clearly they must be telling the truth.
Yes.
Beautiful. I love it.
Is the social problem the existence of astrologers and psychics?
Or is it that Kevin (and I) consider them to be scammers?
Enquiring minds want to know!
Hey Kevin! Thanks for making me learn how to disable javascript on latimes.com and nytimes.com. Now I can read Krugman again!
If you have an Apple device you can use show reader view in the address bar to bypass the paywall. It works on The Atlantic too.
Can do it on Android too.
Works with Firefox on Windows, most of the time but not always.
Use extension Cookie Autodelete to purge local storage and reset the counter. Not that I advocate IP piracy.
????
This reminds me: Salma Hayek is lowkey the best thing about House of Gucci.
The other great thing is Adam Driver's mistress is played by Matt Damon's love interest in Stillwater, which makes HoG the second film this year in which Adam Driver cuckolds Matt Damon. (The Last Duel is obviously the other.) Now I am curious how hot John Oliver is about this.
It's time for another post on murder rates. Sure... this is the fault of those democrats who support gun control. This just makes me so mad. We're so afraid to piss off the hunters so we just put up with this nonsense. It ain't a racial thing... it's crazy effing stupid thing.
Father of the year here in Michigan.
Three students lost their lives - a 16-year-old boy who died in a patrol car en route to a hospital, and two girls, aged 14 and 17, authorities said.
Of the seven other students struck by gunfire, three of them - a 15-year-old boy with a gunshot wound to the head and two girls with chest wounds, aged 14 and 17, were hospitalized in critical condition, Bouchard said. The younger girl was on a ventilator after surgery.
The four remaining teenage victims - three boys and a girl - were listed in serious or stable condition, he said. One teacher was treated for a shoulder wound and later discharged.
Undersheriff Michael McCabe said 15 to 20 rounds were fired during the rampage, which lasted no more than five minutes.
Bouchard said the boy was armed with a 9 millimeter semi-automatic handgun his father had purchased on Nov. 26, along with three 15-round magazines. Seven live rounds remained in the gun when the youth was arrested, the sheriff said.
The boy apparently "had been shooting" with the gun before Tuesday's attack and had posted pictures of the weapon and a target he was using, according to the sheriff.
If this innocent child lunatic ever gets out of being a political prisoner he has a bright future as an intern for Matt Gaetz.
I’m often shocked at how bad the LA Times is, but I certainly wasn’t expecting “metaphysical practitioners”. The place is owned by a doctor for gosh sakes. (The LA Times, that is.)
Once I told a very cute stoner girl that I thought astrology was bunk. She said that was a very ignorant thing to say and I cracked up.
Yeah she didn't go out with me.
@Special Newb:
I usually went with "I'm not a believer." If the girl was pretty cute, I switched to "I just don't know enough about it." I could usually get at least one date before she found me out. But then I was pretty cute myself in those days.
"Systemic racism is everywhere"
That word systemic, I do not think it means what you think it means...
(I get that the use is a joke. What's not a joke is our society being contorted like a pretzel because whining snowflakes consider every instance of bad behavior against them to be a "systemic" injustice demanding a political response.)
Personally I’d be much more amused if it was Jim Baker or Joel Osteen or any of those other Christian grifters (like the “pastor” of my anti-vax nephew’s church) who were getting scammed.
Why?
A grifter is a grifter. What's going on in your mind that says "white grifters should be punished, not black grifters"?
It's precisely this tolerance by a certain species of white "liberal" of crime by blacks that makes life as a poor black so unpleasant; the crime-related fear and risk is substantially worse than silly nonsense like white people using last years preferred word for non-whites rather than this year's preferred word. Exploiting the weak and dumb is vile behavior, whether done by whites or blacks.
I don’t know where you got the racial aspect in my post. There was none. If anything it’s that I’m more intolerant of Christian grifters. And even that would be inaccurate. Mostly it’s an intolerance for a big time grifter as opposed to small time grifters.
And I suppose I would be more intolerant of the Astrology grifters if they were involved in telling people to not get vaccinated. So yes, there is a political aspect.
I find this a difficult thing to get worked up about.