I lose confidence in guys like Oliver and Jon Stewart, because the few times they talk about a subject I actually know very well, they make misinformed points that betray their lack of research/experience in that field.

Can you clarify those statements. I have seen that segment and would be interested to know about misinformation in it.

Or are you talking about a different segment?

I think the parent is talking about the Gell-Mann amnesia effect.

I've never understood why it's ok for people to waste their money on HBO but not fantasy sports.

> I've never understood why it's ok for people to waste their money on HBO but not fantasy sports

I've never understood why it's okay for people to waste money on fantasy sports but not on Ponzi schemes.

Most people in Ponzi schemes are being directly mislead. They don't think it's a gamble.

> Most people in Ponzi schemes are being directly mislead. They don't think it's a gamble.

Most people are being directly mislead. This is true for the vast majority of the human experience. Politics, love, advertising, the list goes on.

Why are Ponzi schemes less palatable than being fleeced by automated scripts on a sports-betting site? In both cases, people think they will make money because they are smart, when they actually will lose money because they are dumb.

> In both cases, people think they will make money because they are smart, when they actually will lose money because they are dumb.

I don't agree with this sentence. Ponzi scheme people probably don't feel smart, rather they've been mislead into thinking they have an opportunity to invest in something where they can't lose. And participants in DFS don't lose based on their intelligence, generally speaking.

To answer your question, though, Ponzi scheme participants are being intentionally misled by fraudsters, where DFS participants are willingly gambling of their own accord. That's the difference in palatability.

I think you are misrepresenting what a Ponzi scheme is. People actually get defrauded and are given phony fund statements and they are generally not aware at all that there is a Ponzi scheme occurring, they just think they happen to have a good fund manager. So it's not a good comparison.