There's gotta be a line between victim blaming and outright victim stupidity. I think these people who fell for these scams may be on the latter half of that line.

> victim blaming and outright victim stupidity.

the last decade completely removed people foresight in negative outcomes. it's always the system or the other party

I'm not sure how anyone can say with a straight face that they trusted and believed in Logan. I would sooner buy a bored ape than crypto from him. These scams are easy to see through I thought. But people ended up spending millions of dollars on it before it was even released?

> I know it's wrong

Provided you differentiate feeling sorry for the victims and wanting the perpetrators brought to justice, I don't think there's any real social obligation to feel sorry for victims. Wanting justice can be justified by considering the corrosive effect crimes have on society as a whole, even though the direct victims don't deserve sympathy. For instance, when gangsters massacre other gangsters, I don't feel sorry for the victims (who lived by the sword, then died by it) but this lack of empathy for the victims doesn't temper my desire to see the perpetrators brought to justice.

The trap is when you don't care about the perpetrators facing justice because you think the victims deserved it. That's a bad path to go down.

I like this.

The value of retribution exists independently of the desire for revenge.

> The trap is when you don't care about the perpetrators facing justice because you think the victims deserved it

> I don't think there's any real social obligation to feel sorry for victims.

I disagree. In general there is, it just isn't a legal one. Also this raises the question of where new laws come from (e.g. abolitionism)

> Different how?

Different in that they believe he appeals to the greater fool. We know that despite his controversies, he still attracts a significant audience. Anyone looking to him sees that as a money making opportunity.

Notice how all the early investors are more concerned about "when is Logan gonna market CryptoZoo" because that is how they make their initial investment back. Someone who was genuinely scammed would instead be talking about legal action.

This part is baffling. The story has always been that Logan has a young, impressionable audience. These are grown men with a bunch of disposable income, and they’re listening to the Logan Paul podcast and buying his crypto nonsense? Does not compute.

herd mentality is an incredibly strong force as well as social proof. Logan Paul is so big that those without critical thinking may think its a safe bet.

You should appreciate that the sort of critical thinking one might take for granted in a community such as this is arguably the exception in society as opposed to the rule.

This is just virtual musical chairs for a lot (most) of them. Also bunch of disposable income does not mean a person is not an idiot. This has been proven many many times.

would you feel sorry for someone with mental disabilities that was scammed like this?

If so, at what point on the spectrum of intelligence from medical disability to childhood neglect, to growing up within an environment of anti-intellectualism to an environment where you're encouraged to blindly follow (such as some religious communities) to those that just offered blithe trust in something that is so big that they fell into herd mentality?

It's a good and fair question. But if you watch the entirety of the video, which features interviews of the victims, you will see that those people are 1/ certainly not mentally impaired 2/ not "stupid" either (as in, people who couldn't understand a question or articulate a clear answer).

I personally have a strong aversion to gurus of any kind, to a point that it's more a flaw than a strength. I don't expect other people to be the same, and I understand (or at least I think I do) the appeal of role models.

But to fall for a man like Logan Paul, who is not just hollow, but obviously mean and a pathological liar... that's... inexplicable; and the only explication I can find is that these normal, non-stupid people were overcome by greed, and put their critical mind on hold (let alone their sense of morality).

I mention the spectrum. Just because they're not visibly drooling or don't have any obvious disabilities doesn't mean they're a entirely competent. Childhood neglect for example is an intersection rarely seen in a place like this because it barely intersects with the lives of most professionals who tend to come from more supportive backgrounds. However it still exists and I would argue is considerably more prevalent than you're possibly giving it credit for.

To have absolutely zero empathy for people with considerably less fortunate backgrounds when they need our support the most demonstrates a dearth of compassion IMHO.

Only my personal experience but at certain times I was in need to follow people in the light, whether shady or not, my brain was in a fog. Add the crypto get rich quick factor and people will just spend all their neurons into trying to guess where they will make the more money.

Hearing how you got out of that would be interesting.

Spending two years in crypto made me realize I too was capable of being gullible. Education evaporates in these situations (I was jobless and in a hurry to escape from the pit, I'm not anymore which probably helped) you regress to very primitive social reflexes. Crypto was probably an amplified context but trading (and other similar money related activities) are similar.

Crypto is a terrible environment. I know a couple of people that scored really big at the obvious expense of others, and one guy that is now circling the drain after being super high for a while. It's great to see you managed to escape the lure.

What does 'cricling the drain' means ?

I took some material losses so it probably affected my reflection, but in any case it was a super deep lesson on human nature, and how, even in the 2020s we still operate on fuzzy animal logic (following, gurus, ..).

It means that I'm seriously worried about him and his mental health but that there isn't a thing I can do about it.

What causes his turmoil ? The newfound material wealth was too rapid and he lost a notion of normality? Or is it having luck while others lost being a burden on his mind ?

(trading highly speculative stuff like crypto really made me feel empty due, you're never selling something useful for the other, you just benefit from their lack of luck. Very strange superposition of emotions)

> I mean, I'm sorry they're hurt and I'm sorry they're broke, but they really really should have known better.

I agree with you that it's very hard to find any sort of value in someone like Logan Paul, but at the same time I'd imagine a lot of his fans are young people who are looking for role models. In this case, they might not have been mature enough to understand the type of person they were dealing with

Also, sympathy for the victim compels people to see to it that the perpetrator is punished

Hard agree on that.

It's interesting, the journalist terms those who purchased eggs as "investors" and that may be fair, but it seems what they did was buy "eggs" to be used as part of a play to earn game that was unreleased.

I understand they expected the game to be successful and the eggs and the game currency to appreciate, but making this size of purchase before the game demonstrates that it actually works... it's hard to understand.

Also, it's not like these "investors" preordered a game for $100 and it never released.

They wanted to get in and out early before the hype dies. They wanted to get rich quick. Of all the games out there, why shell out tens of thousands for an unreleased egg hatching game?