Increasingly I realize there's a lot of truth to the idea that supposedly smart and educated people are actually the easiest marks for all sorts of cons. They suffer from all the normal human frailities combined with an oversized sense of their own genius ("supposedly smart" people have some marker - like a degree or position - certifying them as "smart" which they may or may not be, especially outside some narrow expertise). They couldn't possibly fall for a con, could they?
Used be a stories of, like, a physics professor falling for a Nigerian scam email (remember those)? And now I get it.
All of this country's geniuses fell for this one, one of the most catastrophic conspiracy theories in history.
Of all the "mea culpas" certainly none of them said, "maybe I am just a fucking dumbass."
