Con jobs exploit typical human characteristics such as greed, dishonesty, vanity, honesty, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility, desperation, naïveté, a thirst for power or position or in many cases, embarrassment after being conned.
There is the common factor in every good con – to identify a potential mark (the victim) such that only that the victim relies on the good faith of the con artist. Victims of these scams tend to show an incautious level of greed and gullibility.
Many con artists target the elderly, but even alert and educated people may be taken in by other forms of a con.
Con artists often have accomplices, known as “shills” to help manipulate the mark into accepting the con man’s plan. In a traditional confidence game, the mark is led to believe that he will be able to win money or some other prize by doing some task. The accomplices may pretend to be strangers who have benefited from performing the task in the past.
Marks aren’t always weak or stupid; they might actually recognize the con and attempt to out-cheat the con artist, only to discover that they have been manipulated into losing from the very beginning.
If the game goes on long enough, the mark eventually gets wise and becomes an active participant, a shill, because that is the only way he can get his money back. The hallmark of most successful con artists is their pathological ability to lie and to create elaborate and detailed persona to support the con, to make it so believable to the mark that they simply can’t resist buying in and no matter how elaborate the story, there is no version of the story where the con artist doesn’t come out on top.
But all cons do fall apart - even after they are recognized, they often keep running due to two things: 1) many are prolonged by the embarrassment of the mark and their inability to acknowledge that they have been conned or 2) after they realize that they have been taken, the marks want to keep the con going long enough to pass it on to someone else and hopefully get their money and pride back in the transfer.
Neither ever works because the game is rigged before it starts.
Admitting that you have been a fool is a very tough thing for many to do, especially if they hold positions of authority, are of advanced academic standing or are of high social status – coincidentally, a large number of Biden's most influential supporters fit in one or more of these categories.
See any similarities to collectivism?
It is a con game.
How about the contemporary Democrats?
It is a party of con artists, marks and shills.