Tinnitus — The Cure
Beware the Hucksters
If you’re a tinnitus sufferer and you’ve come here to read about the cure, let me save you some time. That’s not what this article is about. It’s about hucksters. Sorry. I know… I suffer from tinnitus myself, and I’ve chased claims that promise a cure, just like you. Unfortunately, there is no cure, and people who lead you astray with magical claims, saying that the medical community or the pharmaceutical industry is hiding something from you… well, those folks are charlatans trying to cheat you out of a few bucks, as you probably know by now.
I want to talk about hucksters generally and about my own (and your) vulnerability to people like them. This morning, I let myself be trapped by another tinnitus scam on the internet. I guess I’m desperate. I should have stopped listening to the pitch after five minutes had passed since the hawker told me he would tell me about the cure in five minutes. Did the huckster think I was some kind of fool? Am I some kind of fool? Yup! I am.
After ten minutes, I was still listening. It took me twenty minutes before I gave up. What a waste of my time. Why do I let myself be hooked like that, and why are the modern-day magic elixir hucksters willing to take money fraudulently from impressionable people like me, pretending that their solution is my last hope? Why?
Because it often works. They keep us guessing, suck us in, hold us in suspense, lead us by the nose, and expect us to buy their baloney. And enough of us do that to make it worth their while. The experienced players walk away quickly. Those not so experienced, average folks like me, stick around until we see the ploy, wasting only time and energy though not getting caught in the trap. Unfortunately, some of us get stuck in the trap and become the huckster’s prey — where the charlatans make their money.
I guess I’ve been stuck in the trap more than once before I learned my lesson — learned the difference between someone legitimately trying to help me and someone who just wants to take me for all I’ve got. Honestly, I don’t know exactly why I’ve fallen for one scam or another. Desperation is probably key. Simple curiosity might be another more rational reason.
No, it’s desperation.
When you think there’s no solution and even the most unlikely hand reaches out to you, you grab it. It’s no different from a political huckster who tells you the government is broken and “I’m the only one who can fix it.” Why do we fall for stuff like that — and keep falling for it? Why do we think “democracy” is broken and that some charlatan can fix it? Are we that desperate? Are we really so bad off that we’re willing to drop everything rational and go for the quick fix? Did we learn nothing in grade school?
Neither forgetting our grade school education nor being fooled is the biggest problem. The biggest problem occurs AFTER being taken by the huckster, hanging on for dear life because you can’t admit you’ve been taken, and then not learning from the experience. I admit that even after hearing a bunch of these internet snake-oil salespeople, I’m still vulnerable. It’s hard to acknowledge that sometimes there’s no solution or that the solution is so hard to come by that I’ll reach for the easy path, the one where I don’t have to think or work for a solution. I could eat healthier. I could exercise more. Maybe none of that self-discipline will work to fix my tinnitus, but neither will spending money for snake-oil, and the latter won’t make me healthier.
It’s the same with politics. It’s hard to do things that support democracy, though our government does need patching up here and there. We can help, but it’s easier to follow the asshole who claims to be the solution, even though it’s obvious he just wants to take us for all we’re worth. But it’s our choice. Beware the huckster.