Distraction is what makes sleight of hand possible, as the magician subtly shifts your attention from the thing they're actually doing to the thing they want you to be seeing. With your eyes and mind focused on one thing, you miss the card being moved, or the ball being palmed. It's magic! How delightful!
Pickpockets are a little less delightful, but the principle remains the same. There's a bump against your shoulder, and a muttered excuse me, and you don't notice your phone or your wallet snicking out of your pocket. Years back, a group of Gyp...sorry, Roma...kids tried that on me in Italy, but they were still learning, and the little hand that clumsily reached for my wallet only got a whack as a reward. Pickpocketing's a dying art, I fear.
Con-men and scammers, though, are now everywhere, and they're far more successful at their trade. The key, again, is to keep your mark distracted, off balance, and so focused on what you want them to focus on that they miss what you're actually doing.
Like, say, the three men above. One is a casino magnate and reality television star. Another is a private equity venture capitalist. The third is a tech bro, and the richest man in the world.
They've been saying a whole lot about immigrants stealing jobs from Hard Working Americans, dirty violent immigrants with bad genetics, all here to take what rightfully belongs to Us. "They" are the enemy, the thieves of our future.
But who is saying this?
The casino magnate and reality TV star?
He's a master of the art of distraction. "Fill the space with bullxxxx," as Steve Bannon described it, and . Bad dirty lazy dark-skinned foreigners coming for your jobs! Communist Fascist Marxists! His sketchy profiteering business ventures...NFTs, cheap Bibles, watches marked up 200%...would have once caused outrage, but not if that outrage is turned against migrant workers.
Who is saying this?
The private equity venture capitalist is claiming that immigrants are stealing jobs, and, notably, buying all of the houses that should otherwise go to Americans. But the big trend, lately, is not for immigrants making minimum or subminimum wage as day laborers and farmworkers to somehow manage a $500,000 mortgage. It's for private equity firms to snap up single family homes, which they then rent out at a premium. But, hey, don't look at that!
Who is saying this?
The Tech Bro and Richest Man in the World is pouring billions and billions into AI and robotics. He's pitching a robot car, along with self-driving trucks and buses. He's pitching androids. To do what? What are those for? What is his vision?
To replace Uber drivers, delivery drivers, and truck drivers. To replace line workers and service workers and front desk clerks. To replace forklift drivers and warehouse staff. Because if you can lease a bot to do the work, why would you even need human beings? You wouldn't. It's part of the great shiny vision of the future, a future where the Workers of the World can't Unite because there's no more work left for them to do.
It's utterly, damnably obvious.
If you're not distracted by the shine and sparkle in your eyes.
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