You can't fool me, I am too stupid

Once my cousin said to me " You can't fool me, I am too stupid".   Kadizzle has always been amused by the statement.  It is hard to explain, but think about it.  Most magical tricks rely on the mind's ability to misinterpret data.  To be fooled you have to have a minimum level of intelligence in order to confuse yourself.  Paranoid people illustrate this point perfectly.  If you ever took a psychology course no doubt you learned that paranoia takes a certain level of intelligence in order to invent the elaborate schemes the paranoid person believes in.

People often have a tendency to make something complicated that is not.  It is the equivalent of hiding in plain site.  Kadizzle has often set out on a complicated search for his glasses.  It quickly becomes a puzzle. Finally he realizes they are hooked onto his shirt right under his chin.

On a practical basis how do you put this into practice.  A classic case is those guys on television trying to sell you gold.  They tell you the price of gold is going to go up and that you should buy some.  Now, if I had gold and I knew next week it would be worth more, why would I sell it?  The simple answer is I don't believe what I am telling you.  Trickle down economics runs along the same line.  Give the rich more money and it will help you.  You give me twenty dollars and I will give you back ten.  You just got ten dollars.  The American public falls for this scam.  All you have to do is ramp this up a little and you have the classic Ponzi scheme.