On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 10:26 AM, Stephen A. Lawrence <[email protected]>wrote:
> > And if they're actually con guys, well, most criminals are, after all, > kind of dumb (despite the fact that the ones who get famous and written up > in the news tend to be exceptionally intelligent). This has been studied > (can't cite a URL, sorry), it's not just speculation. Smart people > generally don't feel the need to rob banks, or to go into dicey con games > where they're more than half likely to end up in jail. The upside doesn't > balance out the downside. > Right. Like Jay Leno, I think dumb criminals are particularly amusing at times. But I think with many, it's less a matter of low intellect and more a matter of a sociopathic personality which doesn't differentiate right from wrong and/or doesn't care about it. Some degree of sociopathy has, I think, evolutionary advantages therefore a lot of people and many cultures incorporate those traits. Many free energy and related scams appear to have originated from criminals and sociopaths and people who were undoubtedly both.
