[Yonts]

Apparently Hal Bidlack and others were victims of a Deception during the election last year.

Pretty good reminder that anybody can be taken in!

[Dr. Mabuse]

Apparently Hal Bidlack and others were victims of a Deception during the election last year.

Pretty good reminder that anybody can be taken in!

Especially when you have no good reason to doubt. We all want to think good about the people we meet, and interact with. I am naïve, and start with expecting that people I meet are moral and ethical. That isn't wrong is it. But is means that I'm open to get fooled.

[Hittman]

I do the same thing, Dr, but rely on my instincts.

Sometimes when I first meet someone I'll just get a feeling that this person is untrustworthy. I'm skeptic enough to know there's nothing mystical about it, that I'm picking up on something even though I'm not sure what it is. Every single time I've had this premonition it's turned out to be correct. On a few occasions nothing happened for quite a while, and I thought I was wrong, but then learned that he had scammed or ripped off someone else. And I'm not talking about failing to pay back a $20 loan, but a good sized intentional rip-off. In hindsight, I can usually see where he's tried to sucker me, but those instincts kept me from getting involved with him.

But while this "instinct" has never been wrong, there have been plenty of times it failed by not going off in the first place. I believed someone to be trustworthy and then found out otherwise, either through my own painful experience or that of a friend.

The best defense against this is not to have enough to be worth stealing, a defense I've sadly had in place most of my life. But it's always discouraging to find out you were deeply wrong about someone.

But. . . such is life. Assuming someone is a good guy until there's evidence to the contrary is the best way to go, so you play the percentages and take your chances. The other approach, assuming that everyone is out to rip you off, not only means you'll be wrong more often than you're right, but is a lousy way to live.

[dcolanduno]

This can happen with Skeptics, as a whole we are VERY nice people and like to help out when people ask.

This is nothing compared to how they all got punked when they filmed Expelled. <sigh>

[kiless]

This can happen with Skeptics, as a whole we are VERY nice people and like to help out when people ask.

This is nothing compared to how they all got punked when they filmed Expelled. <sigh>

Yeah, that was one of the FIRST responses to Shermer when he wrote up a summary of the Shirley Ghostman story? He said:

“I didn’t check up on the production company because I have never been burned…”

Um…really?

[dcolanduno]

The same group/guy tried to rope me and Swoopy into his 'testing' I kept asking questions about what the experiment was, the goal of it, etc...

He was dodgy and then he realized we lived on the East Coast, so I never heard back once I told him we lived in Atlanta.

[kiless]

The same group/guy tried to rope me and Swoopy into his 'testing' I kept asking questions about what the experiment was, the goal of it, etc...

He was dodgy and then he realized we lived on the East Coast, so I never heard back once I told him we lived in Atlanta.

I don't think he would have got too far with a response! Swoopy is far too well-versed in British humour for a start, isn't she? I have a vision of you responding the same way you did to me when I filmed you in Atlanta:



Me: Blah blah blah blah blah!

Derek: *silently stares in bemusement....*

[dcolanduno]

Hey!