The GOP Nigerian scam

I used to be a "scambaiter", someone who would pretend to be a potential victim or even another scammer in order to waste the time of internet fraudsters. Although wasting their time was my original intent, I became trusted enough by some of them for them to share information on their victims, including sending me emails from their "magas" (Nigerian slang for "fools") which I was able to use to warn those people.

Some folks were suspicious and after being warned, dropped contact with the scammer. The resulting moaning and groaning from the "lads" (a scambaiter name for the scammers) was always a sign that they had lost another source of ill-gotten income. However, many people were so emotionally and financially invested in the scam that no amount of warning could dissuade them, including visits from local police or even members of the clergy. I talked to some that had well over 6 figures worth of income now sitting in the bank account of some "oga" (Nigerian slang for "boss") in Lagos, Nigeria. I suppose the decision to keep their heads in the proverbial sand, even in the face of overwhelming evidence and bankruptcy, was preferable to dealing with the crushing reality that they had been scammed. Emotionally they'd prefer to go on sending money and believing that with that one last payment, they would finally get that huge payment from that inheritance left to them by that previously unknown distant relative who mysteriously died and left all their money to them.

I know voters who have also been duped the same way, whether it be on social issues or the economy. They continue to believe that if they keep voting for the GOP and their policies, they'll finally become rich and can move into that gated community they were previously only allowed into to cut the grass or fix the plumbing. They believe that if we give tax cuts to their wealthy bosses, they'll get raises and more people will be hired to ease the workload they're currently under. They're convinced that just one more election and somehow abortion will be totally banned across the country with some executive order, completely ignoring the fact that only a Supreme Court ruling, in complete violation of precedent and the Constitution, would actually accomplish that fact. Yet, the American "maga" goes to the polls every year and votes for politicians and policies that continue to push us as a nation towards bankruptcy, both financially and morally. This is the perfect example of insanity, doing the same thing over and over again, yet still somehow expecting the outcome to be different.

I miss scambaiting and warning but now I just do warnings, except it isn't to people sending the last of their life's savings to Nigeria, it is to the millions of American voters holding out for a windfall that will never come.