Posted by:
2+2=4
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Date: July 22, 2014 10:22PM
I have been following the story, so I watched the entire presentation today, and have read some of the published reactions, and observed both yesterday's and today's stock market response.
One impression I came away with:
Like Mormonism, MLM fraud is unusually (and maybe counter intuitively) complicated, outrageously dishonest and obfuscated. The perpetrators lie so much, blatantly employ DARVO and other bad faith tactics against victims/critics, and the story seems so far fetched, that such a massive fraud would be allowed to go on for so long, that it is too difficult for your average Joe or Joanne to get their mind around the whole thing. Ackman is absolutely right, and was also right to compare it as he did at a couple of points to the mafia or totalist groups or the like....what I mean is, it is definitely on the cult spectrum. But to get the public to understand it.....that is soooo difficult....and getting the public/the market to see it is obviously getting crazy making for even someone with the brains and financial resources of Ackman.
He is in the same boat all of us here are, in a way.
*****
One weird detail from today's expose on the HLF "Nutrition Clubs": Nut Club owners are taught as part of the Nut Club biz system (and don't question the system!... obey obey obey....do what you're taught by leaders, because system is "proven! No fail! This is the only way to get to Millionaire's Team!") to put their daily cash collections into a Green Envelope (the Green Envelope money is supposedly their "salary" but by the time they pay for expenses like rent, electricity, water, office supplies etc on the Nut Club, they are only at break even or in the hole financially). Anyway, once a week, the Nutrition Club owner is instructed that they must always take 10 percent of the money out of the Green Envelope and transfer it to a Red Envelope, labelled "Increase". For the Nutrition Club Owner to succeed, they are taught that the money in the Red Envelope must be used to buy more products from Herbalife....
I thought, OMG....Tithing, Herba-style!!