{"slug": "pluralistic-the-big-con-19-jun-2026", "title": "Pluralistic: The Big Con (19 Jun 2026)", "summary": "Bridget Read's book 'Little Bosses Everywhere' reveals that pyramid scheme participants fail to sell products to end-users but remain unaware due to a 'big con' where everyone is in on the scam. The article connects this to modern American politics, citing Amway's founders' political influence in escaping FTC shutdown under President Ford.", "body_md": "Today's links The Big Con: Making the pile of shit bigger won't increase the number of ponies underneath it. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: TVA v SETI@Home; Telemarketers v DHS batphones; Matt Stone's MPAA censorship memo; Stonehenge pocket watch; W3C v security research; Congressional mass-shooting response simulator; Dynastic wealth; Gig economy astroturf; Meta publishes your AI prompts. Upcoming appearances: LA, Menlo Park, Toronto, NYC, Philadelphia, Chicago, London, Edinburgh, Sydney, Melbourne, Brighton, London, South Bend. Recent appearances: Where I've been. Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em. Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em. Colophon: All the rest. The Big Con (permalink) Partway through Bridget Read's unmissable chronicle of pyramid (\"multi-level marketing\") schemes, Little Bosses Everywhere, there comes a dual revelation: no one is selling any product to end-users and no one knows it: https://pluralistic.net/2025/05/05/free-enterprise-system/#amway-or-the-highway That is to say, all the hustlers who have spent thousands of dollars on Mary Kay, Herbalife and Amway have failed to move any of their product (beyond a statistically insignificant number of sales to friends and family who quickly tire of being hustled and stop buying this substandard, overpriced junk). But none of these \"entrepreneurs\" knows it, or admits it to anyone – not their \"downlines\" (friends they've lured into the swindle), nor their \"uplines\" (friends who recruited them into the con). Each pyramid scheme victim thinks that they're the only failure in the whole bunch. They go to massive \"sales conferences\" where people boast about all the sales they're making, and they're all lying about it. Incredibly, the pyramid schemers who run these criminal enterprises have figured out how to make a virtue out of this situation: they offer \"sales coaching\" courses to help people make the sales that \"everyone else is making.\" In other words, once you've gone bust failing to sell Amway, they'll get you to go further into debt to learn how to correct the (nonexistent) issues with your sales strategy so that you can join the (imaginary) legion of people who sell Amway by the bushel. Con artists have a name for this kind of swindle: it's called a \"big con,\" which is when everyone a mark comes into contact with is in on the scam. Here's how the big con worked: after a \"roper\" snared a victim (usually on an intercity train), they would telegraph ahead and let the home team know they had a live one. From that point forward, every single person the victim came into contact with was in on it – from the porter who collected his bags at the train station to the cab driver to the Western Union clerk he uses to cable his banker and ask for a cashier's check for his life's savings. In the big con, dozens of skilled actors are putting on a play for an audience of one: you. It's a real-world, non-hallucinatory version of \"gang stalking delusion,\" which is when someone going through a mental health crisis believes that everyone they meet is in on a conspiracy to drive them crazy: https://pluralistic.net/2026/06/03/mission-space/#gsd The situation that people suffering from GSD hallucinate is actually happening to people ensnared in a big con…and pyramid schemes are a big con. What's more – as Read's book makes clear – you can't understand modern American politics without understanding pyramid schemes. One of the most destructive pyramid schemes in American history is Amway. The FTC was about to shut Amway down in the mid-1970s, but then Nixon resigned and Ford became president. Ford had been the Congressman to Amway's founders Jay Van Andel (then the head of the US Chamber of Commerce, which is to say, America's most powerful business lobbyist) and Dick DeVos (yes, that DeVos). Ford and the Amway swindlers were thick as thieves, and so Ford called off the FTC. Rather than going to jail, DeVos and Van Andel became morbidly wealthy, and they used some of their stolen money to found and fund the Heritage Foundation (yes, that Heritage Foundation). The political class running America are pyramid scheme swindlers, funded by pyramid scheme money. They're running a big con on all of us. That's true of the Trumps, who've excreted a diarrhoeic slurry of shitcoins that have made them billions – and lost billions for their \"investors\": https://www.citationneeded.news/issue-106/ Trump insists that he is a self-made man who made his money with successful real estate deals. In reality, he lied all the time about his real estate, committing a string of felonies in order to defraud the banks, even as he went bankrupt, time and again: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosecution_of_Donald_Trump_in_New_York Another \"self made man\" is Elon Musk (who is a \"trillionaire,\" in a highly technical sense meaning \"not a trillionaire at all\"). Musk would have been broke several times over but for a string of massive government bailouts and subsidies, which continue to this day: https://www.congress.gov/119/meeting/house/117956/documents/HMKP-119-JU00-20250226-SD003.pdf Trump, Musk, and the rest of the schemers in the pyramid routinely claim that they are wealthy because they are running good businesses, a \"fact\" that many of us accept at face value. It's bad enough that we are deceived about reality, but many of their most addled cult-members try to follow in their footsteps. When they fail, they are in the same situation as one of those busted Amway sellers: thinking they are the only ones who can't make this \"sure thing\" work. Conservativism is a movement of bitter rubes, led by pyramid scheme swindlers: https://pluralistic.net/2025/07/22/all-day-suckers/#i-love-the-poorly-educated The \"wait, is everyone else also failing?\" awakening is an experience that many of America's CEOs are sharing at this moment, as they wonder whether they are the only ones who've fired as many workers as possible and replaced them with AI, only to see their company's fortunes fall: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/uber-ceo-says-other-execs-are-lying-about-ai-they-say-it-ll-be-fine-publicly-but-privately-admit-millions-of-jobs-are-gone/ar-AA1Z9QMv Like an Amway victim, these boardroom rubes simply can't believe that all these people could be in on the con. How could the world spend trillions on AI if it's not on a path to profitability? It's not that these guys spent 2008 in a cave – rather, they just lack the object permanence to remember the last time a \"Federal Wallet Inspector\" approached them at a board meeting and took them for everything: https://pluralistic.net/2025/12/13/uncle-sucker/#willing-marks The thesis that \"it can't be nonsense if there's a lot of money at stake\" is the core of so many of these swindles. It's the investment theory that holds that once a pile of shit gets big enough, there must be a pony under it somewhere. There's a Bugs Bunny bit that I find myself returning to in this era of the big con: it's a gag from 1954's \"Bugs and Thugs\": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bugs_and_Thugs Bugs has been kidnapped by gangsters, who have come to trust him. He tricks them into thinking that the police are coming and he urges them to hide in the oven while he sends the cops away. Then, Bugs performs a one-rabbit show in which he plays both the cop (with a broad Irish accent) and himself: Bugs (cop voice): All right, open up! This is the police! [banging] All right, where's Rocky, where's he hiding? Bugs (normal voice): He's not in this stove. Bugs (cop): Oh-ho, he's hidin' in that stove, eh? Bugs (normal): Now look, would I turn on this gas if my friend Rocky was in there? Bugs (cop): You might, rabbit, you might. Bugs (normal) Would I throw a lighted match in there if my friend was in there? [Massive explosion] Bugs (cop): Well, all right, rabbit, you've convinced me. I'll look for Rocky in the city. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSNTjX_g9a4 We keep living through real world versions of this: \"Would I, Mark Zuckerberg, change my company's name to 'Meta' if I wasn't serious about this?\" \"Oh, you might, Zuck, you might.\" \"OK, but would I spend $61b on the metaverse if I wasn't serious about this?\" \"All right, Zuck, you've convinced me. I won't sell my Facebook (oops, I mean 'Meta'!) shares.\" But neither Zuck nor Musk nor Trump has the charm of Bugs Bunny. At a certain point we're all going to look at each other and say, \"It was all bullshit, wasn't it?\" Hey look at this (permalink) AI Economics for Dummies https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/ai-economics-for-dummies The Longreads Questionnaire, Featuring Cory Doctorow https://longreads.com/2026/06/17/questionnaire-cory-doctorow/ A guide to ‘greedflation’ https://timharford.com/2026/06/a-guide-to-greedflation/ Ubisoft uses DMCA to kill game: slopsmith gets destroyed by obsolete 30 year old law https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgVlEgV27ow Canada Is Forging Ahead with Its Dangerous Surveillance Bill https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/06/canada-forging-ahead-its-dangerous-surveillance-bill Object permanence (permalink) #25yrsago TVA bans SETI@Home https://web.archive.org/web/20010625113535/https://www.knoxnews.com/archives/browserecent/06162001/archives/31399.shtml #25yrsago Scott McCloud on microtransactions and Napster https://web.archive.org/web/20010708054658/http://www.thecomicreader.com/html/icst/icst-6/icst-6.html #20yrsago Wardialling telemarketers stumble on Homeland Security batphones https://web.archive.org/web/20060630104202/https://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060616/NEWS/606160329/1006 #20yrsago NAB: Evidence is irrelevant to copyright treaties https://web.archive.org/web/20060622174657/https://drn.okfn.org/node/133#comment-246#comment-246 #20yrsago LA Times censors newsroom Internet feed https://web.archive.org/web/20060702051259/http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2006/06/protecting_reporters_from.html #20yrsago Matt Stone’s memo to MPAA censors https://web.archive.org/web/20060619220447/https://www.mcnblogs.com/thehotblog/archives/2006/06/preparing_for_t.html #20yrsago Stonehenge pocket-watch predicts solstices https://web.archive.org/web/20060627053213/http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/watches/7d2b/ #15yrsago Mean things authors say about each other https://www.flavorwire.com/188138/the-30-harshest-author-on-author-insults-in-history #15yrsago Glasses with 720p HD video camera https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zioneyez/eyeztm-by-zioneyez-hd-video-recording-glasses-for #15yrsago ICANN votes to roll out 400-800 new generic top-level domains https://www.flickr.com/photos/wseltzer/5852419280/ #10yrsago W3C DRM working group chairman vetoes work on protecting security researchers and competition https://lwn.net/Articles/691108/ #10yrsago Thoughts and Prayers: a Congressional mass-shooting simulator https://thoughtsandprayersthegame.com/ #5yrsago The doctrine of dynastic wealth https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/19/dynastic-wealth/#caste #5yrsago The gig economy's dark-money, astroturf \"community groups\" https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/19/dynastic-wealth/#astroturf #1yrago Your Meta AI prompts are in a live, public feed https://pluralistic.net/2025/06/19/privacy-breach-by-design/#bringing-home-the-beacon Upcoming appearances (permalink) LA: The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI with Brian Merchant (Skylight Books), Jun 19 https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-cory-doctorow-presents-reverse-centaurs-guide-life-after-ai-w-brian-merchant Menlo Park: The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI with Angie Coiro (Kepler's), Jun 21 https://www.keplers.org/upcoming-events-internal/cory-doctorow-2026 Toronto: The Sovereignty Debate (IAB Canada's State of the Nation), Jun 23 https://iabcanada.com/state-of-the-nation-2026 Toronto: The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI (Osler Records/Type Books), Jun 23 https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cory-doctorow-book-launch-and-talk-tickets-1991501299998 NYC: The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI with Jonathan Coulton (The Strand), Jun 24 https://www.strandbooks.com/cory-doctorow-the-reverse-centaur-s-guide-to-life-after-ai.html Philadelphia: The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI with David Williams (Fitler Club/Philadelphia Citizen), Jun 25 https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cory-doctorow-book-event-tickets-1990110326559 Chicago: The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI with Rick Perlstein (Exile in Bookville), Jun 26 https://exileinbookville.com/events/50628 London: Idler Festival, Jul 11 https://www.idler.co.uk/festival/ Edinburgh International Book Festival with Jimmy Wales, Aug 17 https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/events/the-front-list-cory-doctorow-and-jimmy-wales Sydney: The Festival of Dangerous Ideas, Aug 23-24 https://festivalofdangerousideas.com/cory-doctorow/ Melbourne: Enshittification at the Wheeler Centre, Aug 25 https://www.wheelercentre.com/events-tickets/season-2026/cory-doctorow-enshittification Brighton: The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI with Carole Cadwalladr (Brighton Dome), Sep 8 https://brightondome.org/whats-on/LSC-cory-doctorow-the-reverse-centaurs-guide-to-life-after-ai/ London: The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI with Riley Quinn (Foyle's Picadilly), Sep 9 https://www.foyles.co.uk/events/enshittification-cory-doctorow-riley-quinn South Bend: An Evening With Cory Doctorow (Notre Dame), Oct 6 https://franco.nd.edu/events/2026/10/06/an-evening-with-cory-doctorow/ Recent appearances (permalink) How to Think About AI Before It’s Too Late (Galaxy Brain) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPQNPJ0CEPo The future of world governance, with Kim Stanley Robinson (UN Independent Expert on International Order) https://www.youtube.com/live/wJvBvYdaAMY How to Think About Artificial Intelligence (KUER) https://radiowest.kuer.org/show/radiowest/2026-06-16/cory-doctorow-on-how-to-think-about-artificial-intelligence The Enshittification of Life, the Universe, & Everything (Luke Savage) https://www.lukewsavage.com/p/the-enshittification-of-life-the Cory Doctorow's digital jail-break (DW In Focus) https://www.dw.com/en/cory-doctorows-digital-jail-break/audio-77414035 Latest books (permalink) \"Canny Valley\": A limited edition collection of the collages I create for Pluralistic, self-published, September 2025 https://pluralistic.net/2025/09/04/illustrious/#chairman-bruce \"Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It,\" Farrar, Straus, Giroux, October 7 2025 https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374619329/enshittification/ \"Picks and Shovels\": a sequel to \"Red Team Blues,\" about the heroic era of the PC, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), February 2025 (https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865908/picksandshovels). \"The Bezzle\": a sequel to \"Red Team Blues,\" about prison-tech and other grifts, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), February 2024 (thebezzle.org). \"The Lost Cause:\" a solarpunk novel of hope in the climate emergency, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), November 2023 (http://lost-cause.org). \"The Internet Con\": A nonfiction book about interoperability and Big Tech (Verso) September 2023 (http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org). Signed copies at Book Soup (https://www.booksoup.com/book/9781804291245). \"Red Team Blues\": \"A grabby, compulsive thriller that will leave you knowing more about how the world works than you did before.\" Tor Books http://redteamblues.com. \"Chokepoint Capitalism: How to Beat Big Tech, Tame Big Content, and Get Artists Paid, with Rebecca Giblin\", on how to unrig the markets for creative labor, Beacon Press/Scribe 2022 https://chokepointcapitalism.com Upcoming books (permalink) \"The Reverse-Centaur's Guide to AI,\" a short book about being a better AI critic, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, June 2026 (https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374621568/thereversecentaursguidetolifeafterai/) \"Enshittification, Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It\" (the graphic novel), Firstsecond, 2026 \"The Post-American Internet,\" a geopolitical sequel of sorts to Enshittification, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2027 \"Unauthorized Bread\": a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, April 20, 2027 \"The Memex Method,\" Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2027 Colophon (permalink) Today's top sources: Currently writing: \"The Post-American Internet,\" a sequel to \"Enshittification,\" about the better world the rest of us get to have now that Trump has torched America. Third draft completed. Submitted to editor. \"The Reverse Centaur's Guide to AI,\" a short book for Farrar, Straus and Giroux about being an effective AI critic. LEGAL REVIEW AND COPYEDIT COMPLETE. \"The Post-American Internet,\" a short book about internet policy in the age of Trumpism. PLANNING. A Little Brother short story about DIY insulin PLANNING This work – excluding any serialized fiction – is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution. 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You further represent that you have the authority to release me from any BOGUS AGREEMENTS on behalf of your employer. ISSN: 3066-764X", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/pluralistic-the-big-con-19-jun-2026", "canonical_source": "https://pluralistic.net/2026/06/19/too-big-to-fact-check/", "published_at": "2026-06-19 20:54:32+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-19 21:09:08.813716+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-ethics"], "entities": ["Bridget Read", "Amway", "Mary Kay", "Herbalife", "FTC", "Jay Van Andel", "Dick DeVos", "Gerald Ford"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/pluralistic-the-big-con-19-jun-2026", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/pluralistic-the-big-con-19-jun-2026.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/pluralistic-the-big-con-19-jun-2026.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/pluralistic-the-big-con-19-jun-2026.jsonld"}}