It all seems incredible until you're in it.
Without getting into my personal details, I belong to a category of people with a problem for which science has no solution. Nothing like cancer, to be clear. But it destroys your life enough if you don't have ten times more mental energy and grit than the average person. It's like a constant tax you must pay — a weight on your head that you carry but others don't.
When science isn't enough
Real problem, but no mathematically sound solution. Now imagine you have an aggressive cancer. You try everything, destroy yourself with every treatment. But you keep risking death. You just feel terrible and your life is absolute garbage.
What do you do? Let yourself die? Or accept a crazy risk while continuing to destroy yourself with treatments?
Do you really think you'd stay rational, clear-headed, and keep waiting patiently in the hands of doctors who might even start depersonalizing you over time? If you can, congratulations. But I largely doubt it.
You start looking around, seeking information, lowering your skepticism and deactivating your critical processors because you're desperate. You start trying everything. Your risk calculation becomes disastrous. You experience a perfectly natural regression to a pre-rational state.
My personal experience
I myself was a victim of a couple of very famous charlatans who promised to cure my problem. I have many flaws, but nobody can say I'm not hyper-rational about serious matters or that I don't constantly apply risk analysis to my choices.
I knew there was only sketchy science behind their treatments. But what alternatives did I have? You try everything. Especially when you're the only one with doubts and these charlatans are PR wizards.
When I realized they were conning me and their treatments had side effects, I went back to being "Frank": making noise, threatening these crooks, spreading the word, rallying people to expose them. But the charisma of the charlatan is a fearsome beast. Soon you're alone against a wall.
The gray zones
"Miracle" cures exist wherever there's a gray zone. People have an incredibly strong natural instinct to survive and solve their problems by any means. When research has no answers, it creates a terrible void that the most sociopathic exploit.
You know why I got interested in trading? Because it's a gray zone full of crooks. 99% of trading "gurus" are certified ignoramuses and thieves.
You know why I really got into marketing? Same reason. 90% of the famous gurus in the field are incompetent. They've never managed a media budget. They can't write copy despite authoring books about it. They hold seminars, invite famous guests, but they know nothing and ruin entrepreneurs through cascading effects.
The responsibility lies with institutions
Don't blame or pity those who fall for the traps of charlatans in gray zones. Get furious with your nation and its rulers for allowing these people to exist.
We're all helpless in certain life contexts where we're weak or emotionally compromised. We need to be protected by institutions in these areas. It's not our fault we're human. That we have exposed necks.
It's the fault of those who let vampires circle around us and bite us instead of driving a stake through their hearts.
