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this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2024
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InsanePeopleFacebook
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Old guy here. This sort of idiocy was super rare before the internet. You were mostly limited to talking with family, friends and coworkers. And those people would ridicule idiot ideas, make the idiot take a step back and consider. Humiliation and humiliation avoidance are powerful motivators.
Now idiots can group up and reinforce each other. It's been rather horrifying watching this roll out over the last 30-years.
Rare, but not super rare. You are misremembering the large amount of pamphlets, direct mail and newspaper/magazine ads that fed a propensity for stupid people to try and get rich or circumvent rules. There were no doubt regional differences, but e.g. in the Netherlands there were a few people with large tax trick companies/movements that gained a lot of traction and money before they eventually got stopped by the courts. Talking late 70s/80s. here.