Keywords: Social Business , advertising , business , exploitation , marketing , mental health , narcissism , profit , profits , sucker , suckers , there’s a sucker born every minute , victim , victim mentality , victims

I have some hesitation about today’s topic. It’s complicated. And I feel a little bit outside of my “element” or “comfort zone” (ow whatever), which I feel is more logical, mathematical, rational, stuff like that.

This is about something completely different — most of all it’s about squishy wishy-washy stuff like feelings.

But before I start writing a post about my post, let me just dive into it. Perhaps a good starting point is this age-old saying:

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

Many people say stuff like this all the time

I have even myself coined a term for this feeling. It goes beyond untrustworthy. I call something distrustworthy which is actually worthy of distrust (Google being a prime example that immediately springs to mind 😉 ).

Now let me get back to the complicated part for a moment.

Fun & games, happiness and all that jazz are important parts of life. We all want to be able to kid and play around a bit.

This is where the feelings come in. I think a big part of the Golden Rule is enjoying spending time here together. if someone is clearly not enjoying themselves, then you’re not doing it in a way that conforms to a “best of all possible worlds” scenario.

Now let me try to nail this thing down so we can consider what it all means.

A while back, I wrote a post about a saying usually attributed to P.T. Barnum (see “There’s a Sucker Born Every Minute” [ https://socio.business.blog/2023/05/15/theres-a-sucker-born-every-minute ]). If your idea of “just fooling around” is a matter of taking advantage of someone, then that someone could reasonably be expected to feel taken advantage of” (which is, as far as I know, always — or at least almost always — not a nice feeling to experience).

I think this is then a situation which is in violation of the Golden Rule.

What makes this difficult is that it’s about feelings. A little kid may very well feel perfectly on top of the world and the kid’s parents may be more than happy to pay manyfold the value of whatever it is the kid gets out of it, but if the kid or the parents feels they’re being duped or suckered or played (or whatever). then what might have been the basis for a trustworthy relationship suddenly transforms into something completely different — namely: the basis for a distrustworthy relationship.