conman.

This is Part Fourteen. Part One is here.

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Conmen have been around a long time. They have lied to people for years and convinced them to believe all kinds of things in exchange for all kinds of money. There is a great book called Truth: A Brief History of Total Bullshit and it documents many of these cons. 

But here’s the part that got me. Some psychologists did some research on conmen and their personality traits. Here’s what they had to say: 

…con artists are lacking in empathy, narcissistic, greedy and self-justifying. When caught, they will deny and deflect, blaming just about anybody else rather than taking responsibility. They often justify their actions with the belief that they’re simply reflecting the behavior of others: everyone else is crooked, too, and the victims deserved it because they were equally greedy and corrupt.

In addition, con artists often have what Frankel calls an “addiction to unrealistic dreams and overwhelming ambitions”; comparing the skills of the con artist to that of an actor, she suggests, “It may well be that con artists act the character they have long been dreaming of.”  

“Their belief can make them believable.” 

Here’s the thing… so many of us are being conned. Let me phrase that differently. What if you are being conned? By Trump? Of course, maybe I’m being conned?

I’ve thought through it quite a bit. If I’m being conned to believe that this is a momentous occasion, that voting matters, that the world should be more equal, that wealth should be spread out, that the climate matters, that socialism, communism, and Marxism are not things we are going to become but we might add some elements of them, that America is not great and is actually pretty racist, in debt, violent, and very short sighted, then I’m okay with it. 

You, on the other hand, Trump voter, what if you’re being conned? 

See I know you. I know you’re better than that. You’re smarter, you care more and you know, at the end of the day, that money isn’t the thing that makes you happy anyway. I know you care about people who can’t make ends meet because the whole system has been built from the ground up to be against them and you know that Trump is honestly a narcissistic, bully who doesn’t deserve your vote. 

Don’t you? 

I’m done now. Thanks for listening. It’s now my turn to listen to you. Feel free to comment and/or write me or share this with your friends and family who might be voting for Trump or not voting. 

I’d like to be fair on this - and open. I will post any updates and rebuttals and things I was wrong on - on this blog.

More love.