@Daojoan my model of this phenomenon is that all these people are downstream of the basic failure of their ethics to tell them that the redistribution of money is zero-sum, and so "passive income", like all other forms of profit through owning capital rather than laboring, is simply theft

but capitalism doesn't acknowledge this, so it pushes people into the purest forms of rent extraction and scamming

@vampiress It's a very specific thing and doesn't exactly answer your question, but there's an experience that was seared in my mind. Though I usually don't pay much attention to these things, I found that a certain sequence in What Remains Of Edith Finch - the fish cannery one, for those who have played it - was an absolute masterclass in using the UI to help with immersion.

I don't want to spoil anything, but this sequence tells the story of a man who daydreams progressively more and more until he fully dissociates. And the sequence has your hands on keyboard and mouse performing certain tasks, representing the real world, while your eyes and ears are engaging with the story, which happens more and more in the daydream, until you cannot even see what your hands are doing anymore, and it leads you to experience a kind of dissociation. It is profoundly disturbing (which is the point) and absolutely stellar storytelling.

@artemis children are vastly more intelligent and aware than adults believe, and often way more able to spot horseshit a mile off.
Adults far too often forget how frustrated they were young, and why.

The Epstein case is the perfect example