Proof that Wealth Has No Correlation With Intelligence

[peacewithoutgod]

This absolute idiot paid a psychic more than a half million dollars to reunite him with a dead person. The psychic has been convicted of grand larceny, but I think it's her "victim" who should be jailed for being that stupid!

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/18/nyregion/manhattan-psychic-admits-taking-over-550000-from-lovelorn-client.html?module=WatchingPortal&region=c-column-middle-span-region&pgType=Homepage&action=click&mediaId=wide&state=standard&contentPlacement=6&version=internal&contentCollection=www.nytimes.com&contentId=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2015%2F11%2F18%2Fnyregion%2Fmanhattan-psychic-admits-taking-over-550000-from-lovelorn-client.html&eventName=Watching-article-click

[TomFoolery]

I think it also shows that sadness makes people do odd things.

[Baruch]

I think it also shows that sadness makes people do odd things.

It is not uncommon, for the recently grieving to see the recently deceased, and not just in dreams.  The Jesus resurrection story echoes to this common human experience.

[peacewithoutgod]

I think it also shows that sadness makes people do odd things.

I can be this critical because I've been there - sometimes I still dream of my late wife, who I still miss after 15 years, and since she died every time I've been in a group where there was talk of consulting a psychic or astrologer as "fun", I felt like punching somebody. There isn't a tooth fairy, ghosts aren't real either, and people will unload truck loads of more such shit on you if it will get them your money - nobody understands grief more than I do, and it doesn't really make you that stupid! You need a better excuse than that. 

[TomFoolery]

There isn't a tooth fairy, ghosts aren't real either, and people will unload truck loads of more such shit on you if it will get them your money - nobody understands grief more than I do, and it doesn't really make you that stupid! You need a better excuse than that.

I'm going to call bullshit. There's no point in getting in a pissing contest about who has a sadder life. You don't know what I've dealt with in my day, but that's not really relevant.

You claim I'm stupid, well, I'm going to ask if you're really that arrogant to claim to understand grief better than anyone else on this planet.

There is more than one way to grieve. Where you feel anger about psychics some people feel hope or curiosity. You claim it means they're just stupid. I feel like it maybe means they're stupid, maybe it means they're desperate, maybe it means they're sad. I would be willing to wager there are people who visit astrologers and psychics knowing what they hear is total bullshit but for whatever reason it makes them feel better.

It sounds like this woman got preyed upon and that's sad, however, it makes you sound like the world's biggest ass to insinuate that your grief is more "real" than hers, as is your way of dealing with that grief. 

[peacewithoutgod]

I'm going to call bullshit. There's no point in getting in a pissing contest about who has a sadder life. You don't know what I've dealt with in my day, but that's not really relevant.

You claim I'm stupid, well, I'm going to ask if you're really that arrogant to claim to understand grief better than anyone else on this planet.

I don't think "anyone on the planet" falls for psychic woo, no matter how hard they are grieving. Although I will confess that the idea of buying a $300 paver with her name on it for an urban footbridge seemed a good way of grieving her at the time. Wish I'd saved the money and kept her off the pavement, but then nobody tricked me.

There is more than one way to grieve. Where you feel anger about psychics some people feel hope or curiosity. You claim it means they're just stupid. I feel like it maybe means they're stupid, maybe it means they're desperate, maybe it means they're sad. I would be willing to wager there are people who visit astrologers and psychics knowing what they hear is total bullshit but for whatever reason it makes them feel better.

Yes, there are different ways to grieve, and it's time to eliminate the woomakers as one of those ways. When police target prostitution, their sting operations don't target the product, but the consumer.

If you are aware of the cynical nature of con artists of the woo trade before one catches you in a grieving cycle, then you won't fall for their trap. I'm truly sorry that this happened to you, and I don't know what you actually gave that con, but the likelihood that you gave one half a million dollars is kind of low. If you would give a psychic or astrologer that much money when you have it, then you deserve to get burned.

People need to get it through their heads that total strangers don't know more of the disposition of their loved ones any more than they themselves can, and that anybody who claims to be a "professional" in a trade where you train underground (if at all) does so because it's in no way legitimate.

[Brian37]

They needed a study for that? Of course it doesn't translate. I had wonderful owners at the place I used to work. They were very well off, but they could not understand a religious debate, using terms like "infinite regress" or "pascals wager" ect ect ect. It only means they knew how to balance a spreadsheet and handle employees. I don't think the Koch Brothers understand how much they are fucking up the planet like scientists know.

[josephpalazzo]

Taking advantage of people when they are at their most vulnerable is despicable. I have no sympathy for that psychic. Since he was put out of business that gets my cheers. But there's no need to blame the victim: it was stupid, leave it at that.

[peacewithoutgod]

Taking advantage of people when they are at their most vulnerable is despicable. I have no sympathy for that psychic. Since he was put out of business that gets my cheers. But there's no need to blame the victim: it was stupid, leave it at that.

Just to clarify, and not that it should really matter, but the convicted fraud is female, and the victim male.

[josephpalazzo]

Just to clarify, and not that it should really matter, but the convicted fraud is female, and the victim male.

Thanks.