344
submitted 1 year ago by bady@lemmy.ml to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml
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[-] itsgroundhogdayagain@lemmy.ml 237 points 1 year ago
[-] bady@lemmy.ml 66 points 1 year ago

I am an atheist and I believe the world would be much better without religions. Having said that, I don't conisder it as a scam in itslef. Instead they must have been something evolved over the time due to our ignorance, fear and helplessness. The very same factors that still keep them going.

But hell yeah, people are exploited in the name of religion. I'm from India, one of the largest so called democracies, currently under the governance of a fascist hindutva party that thrives on polarizing people in the name of religion.

BTW I was actually looking for specific instances of scams carefully plotted by known people, companies or even countries instead of broad answers like religion.

[-] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 26 points 1 year ago

Religion was needed, but at some point logic and critical thinking should have been enough.

The issue is the wealthiest benefit when the masses don't have the tools to use that. They want people who won't question rules and blindly follow them.

Humans are just animals, we're not born with those abilities, we need to be taught.

So we see education outright cut or forced to focus on rote memorization rather than the process to understand and figure shit out on our own.

We should be past religion as a species, but it's not automatic, we have to continually teach the next generation to think for themselves

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[-] r0uphis@lemmy.world 130 points 1 year ago

The American healthcare system.

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[-] sneezycat@sopuli.xyz 126 points 1 year ago

Homeopathy, acupuncture, ozone therapy... all "alternative medicines" basically.

[-] Tanoh@lemmy.world 63 points 1 year ago

Like the old joke, "What do you call alternative medicine that works?" "Medicine!"

If some herb, plant or extract has a proven effect it will be adopted by real medicine, and all that is left in alternative medicine is the scams that do not work.

[-] an0nym0us@lemmy.world 27 points 1 year ago

You’re almost right. Modern medicine needs to synthesize natural compounds to profit fully from them. They can’t just use natural remedies and present them to patients because they can’t patent them.

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[-] CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml 43 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Once I made a joke online about paying for homeopathy by dipping a dollar in a jar of water and giving them the jar, and like five people I know unfollowed me lol

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[-] MonkderZweite@feddit.ch 88 points 1 year ago

That you can get rich if you work hard.

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[-] ImplyingImplications@lemmy.ca 82 points 1 year ago

A large portion of art/artifacts are forgeries. Everyone is alright with it because galleries and collectors want to brag about having some unique old art piece and forgers are very good at making pieces that would fool anyone who is just looking at it.

[-] GCanuck@lemmy.world 39 points 1 year ago

My personal conspiracy theory is that almost all art the public is exposed to is a forgery. Why show the plebs the real thing? We wouldn’t notice a difference anyway.

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[-] mojo@lemm.ee 76 points 1 year ago

Lotteries. They're just tax for poor people.

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[-] Efwis@lemmy.zip 75 points 1 year ago

Ponzi schemes, especially the insurance companies. They really are a Ponzi scheme.

Think about it, they promise you things asking for money, then when you need their services they decide where you go, how much they will pay (leaving the rest for you to pay as a deductible), then they turn around and increase your costs for their services, that they fight tooth and nail not to pay anything.

[-] scorpionix@feddit.de 26 points 1 year ago

I argue insurance in and of itself is no ponzi scheme. Working together is the basis of all civilisation. Trying to make a business out of a social service however ... that's rife for abuse, yes.

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[-] zabadoh@lemmy.ml 69 points 1 year ago

Toothpaste.

You only need to squeeze out an amount the size of a pea on to the bristles of your toothbrush.

The image of squeezing along the entire length of the brush bristles was concocted by an ad agency, a la Mad Men, to make consumers use their toothpaste faster, hence buy more product.

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[-] UlyssesT@hexbear.net 66 points 1 year ago

Cryptocurrency in general. Even on the surface, as presented, the main appeal to buy in is "to get rich from it" and the main way you're supposed to get rich is "other people buying in, get in early while you can."

Ponzi. Schemes. All of them. unlimited-power

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[-] beanz00_@lemmy.world 62 points 1 year ago

printer ink, it costs them like 3 cents to make each cartridge and they sell it for so god damn much.

they also go out of their way to have chips in the cartridges and in the printers that make the printer not function if any ink is even running low, doesn't matter if you want to print something in black and white you had better fucking buy more cyan ink

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[-] netburnr@lemmy.ml 61 points 1 year ago
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[-] atlasraven31@lemm.ee 59 points 1 year ago

Tax-free charitable organizations

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[-] alokir@lemmy.world 57 points 1 year ago

Credit scores are a scam to sell credit cards.

You take small loans each month via a credit card that you have to pay back. This increases an imaginary number that lets you take out bigger loans in the furure.

This is all tracked by private companies that you trust with your personal data. That, or you'll not be able to take out a loan if you want to buy a house or start a business.

If you have a good credit score it means that you don't overspend or forget to pay, which you can also achieve with a regular debit card by default. This doesn't serve people, only the banks who expect that a number of people will overspend or not be able to pay their loans back.

Credit cards alone aren't the problem. Forcing them on people with the credit score system is.

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[-] LEDZeppelin@lemmy.world 53 points 1 year ago
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[-] The_Walkening@hexbear.net 50 points 1 year ago

Homeopathy. It's literally based on the idea that diluting stuff turns it into a remedy.

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[-] Posadas@hexbear.net 48 points 1 year ago
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[-] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 48 points 1 year ago

Bernie Madoff should have been caught years before he did.

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[-] yogthos@lemmy.ml 47 points 1 year ago
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[-] Colour_me_triggered@lemm.ee 45 points 1 year ago

Capitalism, religion, monarchy, and religion.

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[-] ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world 42 points 1 year ago

Old Egypt was full of pyramid schemes way back then

[-] the_q@lemmy.world 41 points 1 year ago

Capitalism and the interest based investor economy.

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[-] BelieveRevolt@hexbear.net 39 points 1 year ago

It's absurd that people still think chiropractic is legitimate.

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[-] AOCapitulator@hexbear.net 36 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Restaurants being rated with “Michelin stars” was created as a ploy to encourage people to buy cars and drive more to go on road trips to these restaurants so they’d wear through more tires and have to buy more

*Edited because I was a bit off base

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[-] bigboopballs@hexbear.net 34 points 1 year ago

The current economic order cringe

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[-] airportline@lemmy.ml 31 points 1 year ago

ESG and carbon offsets as an effective way of combating climate change

[-] Saneless@lemmy.world 31 points 1 year ago

That 90% of the people who don't watch sports on Cable TV subsidize it to the tune of 10% of their bill for the 10% of people who watch it

[-] Anti_Weeb_Penguin@lemmy.world 30 points 1 year ago
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[-] Sasuke@hexbear.net 29 points 1 year ago
[-] Mostly_Frogs@lemmy.world 28 points 1 year ago
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[-] ModernRisk@lemmy.dbzer0.com 28 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)
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[-] vd1n@sh.itjust.works 28 points 1 year ago

HR departments in corporate jobs.

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[-] rippersnapper@lemm.ee 26 points 1 year ago

Luxury handbags that cost $60k. Not just a handbag, but to diversify your investment and launder money.

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this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2023
344 points (100.0% liked)

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