MLM and 12 Classic Propaganda Techniques Pt. 2

Today's blog post is going to go through more of the propaganda techniques utilized by MLMers to condition their prospects and lower-ranking members. These techniques are not exclusive to MLM and should be treated as potential threats to our critical faculties. Some other common places in which these propaganda techniques can be regularly seen are, the news, advertisements, major sporting events (yesterday had a lot of football games focusing on the 9/11/2001 events), and especially the internet. It is up to each individual to be cognizant of these techniques and understand their effects, otherwise, they will not be able to identify what is fact and what is fiction.

Without further ado, we go back to our list and start with "exaggerating".

5. "Exaggerating:  Stretching the truth to extremes to get credit, eliminate doubt, or coerce someone.

Narcissists have grandiose personas. Exaggerating is second nature to them.

Example:  Reaction from a narcissist when a friend suggests theirs is a one-sided relationship:  'I’m the best and most generous friend you’ve ever had. I’ve done more for you than anybody in history has done for another.'"

This propaganda technique can be a bit vague, therefore we need to put this in specific context. This isn't the same as "the big lie", and often "exaggerating" can be a combination of lying, "intentional vagueness", and "glittering generalities". In MLM, "exaggerating" is used at every level, therefore, I would like to focus on what the "exaggerating" will look like at each position. Again, some of this may look like "the big lie", and some of this may look like "glittering generalities", but it is based on an original truth that has been morphed into a lie.

Entry-level MLMers (equivalent to MLMers that have limited or no downline) "exaggerating" example: An entry level MLMer may say, "MLM doesn't require a lot of money to start". First of all, "A lot of money" can be subjective, which goes along the lines of "intentional vagueness", and second of all, some MLMs can cost thousands to start, which goes along the lines of "the big lie". The MLMer may try to combat this by saying, "but 'traditional' businesses cost hundreds of thousands or even millions", which is not necessarily true and is an exaggeration in itself, but that also doesn't mean that MLM is inexpensive. This type of "exaggerating" can be extremely misleading.

Mid-level MLMers (equivalent to members with substantial downlines, but not top ranking members) example: A mid level MLMer may say, "MLM has freed me from my job and I am now working the 'business' full time". Again, this has two exaggerations in this statement. First, it hasn't freed them from anything, but rather replaced one job with another. The idea of them being "freed" is a fallacy. Second, this inherently implies they are making a stable income through MLM, which according to the income disclosure charts, would suggest they are not. Only the top 1%, or less, are making any substantial monies from MLM, therefore, any money the mid level MLMers are making is not going to be adequate as a lone income stream.

Top-level MLMers (equivalent to "Amway" diamonds and crowns) example: A top-level MLMer utilizes exaggerations the most. One of their most frequent examples is the lifestyle videos. They will show videos of mansions, cars, boats, and vacations. These videos resemble the celebrity lifestyle and the idea that their money stream is infinite, but that is not accurate. Many top-level MLMers make a modest living, according to the income disclosures, and almost none make enough to have the lifestyles they portray. Instead, they rent fancy cars, fancy mansions, or even plunge themselves into huge amounts of debt to create the facade. A previous "triple diamond" from "Amway", Greg Duncan, bankrupted himself after claiming he paid for everything in cash. Also, at my first "Amway" meeting, Mike Carroll, an Amway diamond, claimed to pay for everything in cash but brought out an "Amway" credit card at the end of the meeting. These top-level MLMers utilize the "exaggeration" technique extremely effectively.

6. "Minimizing:  The opposite of exaggeration, minimizing denies or downplays anything that doesn’t fit with a propagandist’s goals.

Narcissists are desperately image conscious so they frequently minimize the negative consequences of their actions. They also discount others’ feelings and needs, which narcissists tend to see as nuisances.

Example:  A narcissistic parent’s response to adult child who wants to discuss the parent’s past neglect or abuse:  'What are you talking about, you had a great childhood. Yes I was strict but all parents were in those days. You have nothing to complain about.'" 

"Minimizing" is one of the most underappreciated techniques used by a MLMer in my opinion. MLMers have the uncanny ability to completely minimize the nearly 100% failure rate while simultaneously exaggerate their income claims. They also regularly minimize the results of lawsuits and act as though settlements are victories. One of the most notable moments was when "Herbalife's" CEO, Michael Johnson, came out and said the FTC and "Herbalife" had finally reached an "agreement", and it "comes at a time when our business is growing bigger and better than ever before". That was his description of having to pay a $200 million dollar settlement and completely restructure in North America because, as Edith Ramirez stated, "We did not determine 'Herbalife' not to be a pyramid". This brazen disregard for the accuracy of the situation is not unique, and most major MLMs have had to go to court and settle, yet they act as though nothing ever happened or it isn't significant.

One of the other ways MLMers utilize "minimizing" is in the prospecting or recruiting process. They act as though it is an easy "duplication" process, but in actuality, the process is nearly impossible and extremely lengthy. In fact, when I was being propositioned for "Amway", I had to go to three "meetings", read a book, and attend an "FED" before they felt I was ready to join. Not only did that require a lot of my time and effort, but it required an immense amount of theirs as well as money for my tickets. The process in which I was subjected was anything but simple.

Even though these two techniques are technically opposite, their design has the same intention. They want to deceive the person into believing something other than the reality of the situation. They have cleverly designed their words and ideas to disguise their intentions while shutting down any room for rebuttal. They are instrumentally utilizing thought-stopping techniques to better themselves and take consumer's hard earned dollars.

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Source: https://blogs.psychcentral.com/narcissism-decoded/2017/09/12-classic-propaganda-techniques-narcissists-use-to-manipulate-you/

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6MwGeOm8iI&t=68s

MLM and the "You are just angry" line.

Today's blog post is synonymous with one of my earliest posts about projection. Projection is a defense mechanism designed to transfer your own emotions onto someone else. It is, logically speaking, one of the worst ways to "win" a debate, and is usually used as a last resort when the person has had all of their more meaningful points refuted. Instead of continuing to focus on the subject, they begin to attack the rival by suggesting the rival can't be logical, because they are being emotional, or more specifically, angry. The United States, in particular, loves to get emotional when debating, which makes things more interesting, but is not good from a scholarly perspective. We also like to argue, rather than debate, because we attach a part of ourselves to the subject we are talking about. We have gotten to a point, in the US, where the ego is so fragile, that any time we are "losing" a debate we have a visceral reaction and become antagonistic.

MLMers have frequently resorted to projection on other blogs, and have commonly referred to authors and other commentators as angry. They may say the author is angry because they failed at MLM, or they have a specific vendetta against a MLM, or even that it has something to do with their biology. These MLMer attacks are both silly and direct reflections of their specific mood. MLMers wouldn't be looking for anti-MLM blogs unless, they lost a prospect or their family and friends recommended reading it. This loss of a prospect and or the rejection of the "business" by a friend or family member can be extremely damaging to a MLMers ego. This in turn will lead to a rage and will result in lashing out over the internet. When MLMers lash out they lose focus and rationality, which leads to ludicrous comments, some of which reflect themselves. 

Unfortunately, as an anti-MLM blogger and regular commentator on other blogs, there becomes a harsh realization about the ability . MLMers are very similar to addicts of controlled substances, and they aren't going to be able receive help from anyone until they are ready to help themselves. The combination of a weakened ego, and clever psychological manipulation, makes logical discourse nearly impossible. The other harsh reality is, the people these MLMers attack and call names, are the people that try the hardest to show them the errors of their ways.

The best strategy, in my opinion, when a MLM adherent devolves to ad hominem attacks and deviates from the subject, then end the discussion and resume it no sooner than twenty-four hours later. They will need time to refocus and calm down, and it may be best to start the conversation with addressing the exaggeration of emotions and how that is inappropriate for dialogue and business. 

MLM and the "Mine is different" line.

Today's blog post is about the old, tired line, "Some MLMs are better than others", and the various derivatives of this phrase. The main idea behind this line is to discredit your opinion by suggesting what you experienced was a freak incident, or the experience was not typical and you should expect different results because their group is different. There are a couple of fundamental flaws with this, the main one being, they all started with the same premise. It is hard, or in this case impossible, for something to be significantly different if it has to abide by the same structure as the original, therefore if the original has an inherent problem, then you can expect those problems to exist in the subsidiary groups. Translation, if a MLM as a whole has a significant issue, then the groups operating underneath the MLM will have that same issue.

There are three main levels in which this phrase is used, from micro to macro. The lowest level phrase is, my team is different because, we have better mentors, make more millionaires, have been around longer, or some other variation. The middle level phrase is, my MLM is better because, we have better mentors, we have better compensation, we have a better product, we are "new school", or some other variation. Then the highest level phrase is, MLM is better than "traditional" businesses because, you need less capital to start, you don't need to come up with a product, you don't need to handle the legalese, and many more lines. All of this falls under the same premise, we are different, therefore give us a chance. However, they are not different, and there is a very basic reason for why these arguments fall flat.

The MLM concept is founded on the idea that you can generate revenue from spending money instead of making money. This is the root cause for problems in MLM, because the revenue is generated through dollars spent by people involved with the company and not people outside of the company. Therefore, it doesn't matter how you try to justify your MLM or your team as being different or better, because the differences are irrelevant due to that main concept being inherently flawed.

This fallacy is known as a straw man argument, because the people using the, "Mine is different" line aren't addressing the root cause for the failure. They instead, are focusing on the symptoms, which is a common misnomer. It is the same as someone trying to treat a fever with cold compresses when the person actually needs antibiotics due to a virus. If you are only addressing the symptom, then the virus will not be stopped.

Another example is, a person in a MLM may be trying to follow a "system", but they just can't seem to make it work.  They read all of the books, they show the plans, they attend all the seminars, they pay all of their dues, but it still doesn't work. A MLMer may say, "The person just needs to try harder, they need to read more, they need to learn more, they need to do more", which is a focus on the symptom instead of the virus. Instead, the MLMer should say, "This person is following the system and failing. We should take a look at the system and make sure it still works."

MLM and the MSM (Main Stream Media) part 3

Today's blog post is going to focus on the recently wounded MSM network CNN, again, and its continued downward spiral. The story begins with a clip of Donald Trump, before becoming POTUS (President of the United States), appearing on a World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), formerly World Wrestling Federation (WWF), segment in which he is shown beating up a person with the CNN logo for a face. The "meme" became war when Trump tweeted it out on his official Twitter account because CNN took the video as a threat against its "journalists". There is some significant irony as CNN's former New Year's Eve Special co-star Kathy Griffin recently posed with a severed Donald Trump head, and there was no mention of violence being spread against the POTUS, but rather a comedienne making a poor tasting joke. There was also a former CNN anchor being fired for calling Trump a "Piece of Shit" on his Twitter, and finally another video from Project Veritas showing another CNN producer stating 90+% of CNN employees hate Trump and his establishment. So, the CNN bullies didn't like it when they got a taste of their own medicine.

The real problem with this story is what CNN did to the person that edited and authored the Trump clip. CNN, a subsidiary for Time Warner, utilized their ability to track down the creator of the video through his ISP (Internet Service Provider). The creator was then coerced into sending CNN an apology or face the possibility of being unmasked. Reports are saying the author of the video is underage, and that CNN is directly violating the right to privacy (Fourth Amendment). Regardless of whether CNN did infringe upon the rights of another, this is blatant intimidation and should be brought up in court. To date, even with the apology in hand, CNN has stated that they can still release the identity if needed.

The two main points to focus on in this story are:

1. CNN is a group of bullies, and they believe they are allowed to fabricate the truth and create false propaganda against the POTUS, but also can cry foul when a video is made about them.

2. CNN has decided that they are above the law and can dole out "justice" the way they see fit through blackmail and extortion.

MLMers are also bullies as they believe they can fabricate statistics, use fallacious analogies, and continuously push their own agenda, and also completely lose their minds when people write information against their "businesses".  It is okay for them to misquote or completely lie about the statistics of small business success, talk about illegal tax breaks, and use misleading evidence and testimonials of success. They also seem to believe that they can label anyone that disagrees with them, and constantly attack people online that voice a differing opinion. Even though the onus is on them to prove their legitimacy, they regularly "defend, deny, distract, and then disappear" (Anna Banana), while never getting to the root of the problem being discussed. These are classic bullying tactics to avoid taking responsibility for their actions while continuing to perpetuate the same negative behaviors.

MLMers also believe they are above the law, and some of the biggest players have now infiltrated the highest levels of the U.S. Government. While Betsy DeVos, Amway, may be the most notable, there are many members of the Government, in both the House and Senate, that have been lobbying on behalf of MLM for decades. MLMers have made the FDA and the FTC completely ineffective because of the millions of dollars "donated" to their member's campaigns. They are literally the wolves guarding the hen house and unfortunately, the wolves are mostly in the Republican party and the current POTUS doesn't seem to have a problem with MLM, so these problems aren't going away any time soon.

Finally, MLMers can be both bullies and above the law at the same time with their SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) lawsuits. They are extremely costly and time intensive, but most importantly, they are effective because the party being sued by the MLM usually doesn't have the same resources causing them to cave to the MLMs demands. They can directly attack the First Amendment rights of bloggers and writers with little consequences (a few dollars spent), allowing MLMs to make their issues go away. MLMs have nearly complete autonomy to do what they want and say what they want.

MLM, much like CNN, operates under a guise of legitimacy created by the powers given to elected officials. There is a misnomer that elected officials have to have their citizen's best interests at heart, and this has become extremely clear as MLMs and CNN have penetrated into the government through substantial "donations" backed by their multi-billion dollar corporations and crime families. It is more important now, than ever, to understand that these organizations didn't get to be this powerful because they love their fellow beings, but rather because they have gone out of their way to screw their fellow beings to the top.

MLM and Mainstream Media

Today's blog post is going to be a part of a series of posts about current events. As this blog evolves, I believe it is important to build upon the base that has been established in the previous posts by introducing conditioning. Not only do the main people in MLM have severe mental conditions or traits reflecting those conditions, but they also have resources to help their conditions thrive. Some of these resources are political ties, expert lobbyists (similar to the political ties), propaganda news, propaganda blogs, and lawyers ready to issue daunting law suits. Today's blog post is about the outrageous bias seen in pro-MLM blogs as it relates to an outrageous bias in the mainstream media (MSM).

Recently the MSM has been showing their biases worse than ever as they consistently spend most of their time reporting about how evil Donald Trump is, and how he is going out of his way to destroy America. The MSM chooses to utilize hours and hours of television time about Trump's alleged "Russia Collusion", and his now alleged "Obstruction of Justice" because they do not want people to focus on anything other than pure, unadulterated, hatred of the man. The MSM is going out of its way to give an outlandishly unfair amount of television coverage time to this particular subject (regardless of its veracity), because they are completely partisan to the left and are extremely mad that they lost the election. This type of coverage is both poisonous to the American people, because we should have a certain level of respect for our president, and dangerous, because it fuels an incredibly potent divide within the American people. These news outlets are fueling a civil war.

Fortunately, this type of propaganda is not novel and has been utilized for centuries to motivate a nation to do someone's bidding, or in the case of MLM, to motivate a large population of people to extract large quantities of cash from their pockets and inject it into the scheme. Therefore we can learn and understand the history of this type of propaganda and arm ourselves against it. The other advantage is the proliferation of information on the internet. The ability to censor opposing voices is at an all time low, and the accessibility to opposing voices is at an all time high.

An example of the MSM having their propaganda backfire is in the recent interview with Megyn Kelly and Alex Jones. Megyn Kelly, a former Fox pundit, and now an NBC pundit tried to sabotage Alex Jones (Infowars) by having him come in for an interview and talk about his life outside of media. She presented the interview as a way for people watching NBC to discover the person behind Infowars and the "Conspiracy Theories". Unfortunately for Kelly, she walked into a trap as Alex Jones recorded the entire interview, which is legal in Texas, for his protection in case she tried to ask about controversial topics and then edit the interview for a "Hit Piece". It was another attempt by the MSM to promote their propaganda as factual by editing and falsifying information by a labeled "Alternative Facts" "Conspiracist". Whether you agree with Alex Jones or not is entirely irrelevant as the major focus is on the editing and scapegoating of a rival news broadcaster for self gain.

MLMs do the same thing! They have an entire agency devoted to propaganda called the Direct Sales Association (DSA), which is comprised of the most prolific MLM charlatans in the business. They also have infiltrated major news outlets such as, Forbes, the WSJ (Wall Street Journal), the Washington Post, the New York Times, and many others because these news outlets are for profit agencies and often utilize "Guest Writers" to fill columns. MLMs understand the power of edification and propaganda, and they have a lot of money to spend on these two assets. Pro-MLM bloggers also put out "Hit Pieces" on anti-MLM bloggers in the same way Megyn Kelly went after Alex Jones. They have written nonsensical articles about "Joe Cool", "Anna Banana", David Brear, Ethan Vanderbuilt, "Lazy Man", and Robert Fitzpatrick. All of these people have worked diligently to get more information to the public and help arm themselves against MLM, and most of them have no financial bias (they do it for the love of humanity).

When discerning information from sources you don't personally know, it is important to keep an objective mindset. If you find yourself consistently listening to the same people with the same objective, then chances are you are probably not getting an accurate representation of the story. Also, if you are only listening to like-minded people AND you believe you can't be brainwashed, then you probably already are.

MLM and Toxic People

Today's blog post is inspired by another article from my favorite site, Psych Central, and it focuses on a couple key traits that identify toxic people. These traits are consistently displayed by people both inside and outside of the MLM rackets, and are commonly found in people with narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). It is important to note that these traits can be found in non-toxic people as well, but these traits are good indicators to be concerned with any hidden motives.

1. Gas-lighting: this is an attempt, of the toxic person, to cause you to second-guess or question yourself. The person wants to control your thinking by causing you to doubt what you may be sensing intuitively, struggling with within the relationship, or are concerned about.

Gas-lighting is constantly being utilized by the mainstream media and social media platforms. It is an excellent way to confuse people about controversial subjects such as politics, business, religion, gender studies, and any other subject that has differing points of view.

An example of a topic that suffers from regular gas-lighting is abortion. It doesn't matter if you are for abortion or against it because there will always be someone trying to make you doubt your position. If you are on the pro-choice side, then a pro-lifer may make claims such as, "What if you were aborted?", "Doesn't that potential being get a right to life?", "There are other options other than abortion", "Just because the fetus can't speak for itself doesn't mean it wants to be aborted", etc. etc. On the other side of the coin, a person that is pro-life may have a pro-choicer say, "Doesn't everyone have the right to do what they want with their body?", "What if the pregnancy came from a rape?", "Is it fair to burden society with a child I can't take care of?", etc. etc. Either way, there are plenty of inflammatory ways to make someone unsure of their views on topics like this, and gas-lighting is one of the most effective techniques utilized by media outlets to sway people based on hidden agendas from unseen people with deep pockets.

MLMers use gas-lighting like it is going out of style. They are constantly provoking people to question what they have been previously taught, and utilize a prospect's current status as a platform to provide doubt about everything and anything they had previously been taught. MLM gas-lighters can spin anything to meet their agenda, and regularly utilize faulty logic under the guise of mentorship.

An example of MLM gas-lighting is the idea that working for a boss is only going to make the bosses dreams come true. In other words, as long as you have a boss, then you will never be able to earn what you deserve (whatever that may mean). This, in turn, leads to the idea that MLM will give you the opportunities you never could have had working for the man. MLMers only need one of these gas-lighting ideas to work, because once a prospect accepts one of these claims they will be much more likely to accept many more destabilizing claims.

2. Love-Bombing: this is often an attempt of the toxic person to control you by “feeding you” with compliments, affection, protection and love, and all of the wonderful things that make relationships desirable. People who engage in this kind of control are most likely meeting criteria for narcissistic personality disorder and some times even sociopathy.

Love-bombing is just as effective at being used for good as it is for bad. Many people utilize love-bombing to help others overcome extreme mental blocks in their lives. My favorite example is personal trainers. These people are some of the best love-bombers in the world, because they can make anyone feel special and powerful. Not only are they some of the best love-bombers, but they are some of the most necessary, as many people need that special attention or they may become life-threateningly unhealthy. Love-bombing is one of the most powerful weapons in the world and it often gets a negative stigma, but there are many necessary situations in which love-bombing is the absolute best weapon for combating a negative situation.

MLMers constantly use love-bombing as a mean to an end. They don't care about the individuals or their dreams, but they do care about the money prospects can spend on the products. Therefore, they utilize love-bombing as a mask to hide their dubious plans of extracting as much money as possible before prospects realize they have been scammed. My former sponsor was the most upbeat person, and he always made me feel like he cared when I spoke. However, when I refused to join he quickly vanished and so did the rest of the people I met.

MLMers are some of the most toxic people you will encounter because they don't care who they hurt in the pursuit of money. They will use powerful psychological techniques to divorce people from their communities and their wallets. They spread like viral infections as they ravage communities leaving broken dreams and sobering disillusions. MLMers may be malicious or blissfully ignorant, but the damage they cause is still the same. If an MLMer is really trying to do what is best for their family and their community while claiming to be pure of heart, then I ask, "Why do so many people suffer when trying to make a few extra dollars with your business opportunities?"

Source: https://blogs.psychcentral.com/caregivers/2017/05/avoiding-toxic-people-gas-lighting-love-bombing/

MLM and Momentum

Today's blog is not about physics, but rather the psychological version of momentum people go through on a day-to-day basis. Most people realize life has a lot of ups and down, but very few people pay attention to why these situations happen. As Newton's Third Law states, "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.", and this law not only applies to physics, but rather to life in general. Momentum is one of the most powerful psychological forces as it propels us in one direction or another, and often dictates the intensity of a situation.

Have you ever had a day where you felt like nothing you did was right? From start to finish, everything seemed to be wrong and there was absolutely no way to fix it. Furthermore, after each negative event, did you notice it seemed to propel you quicker to the next negative event which was more intense than the last? That is psychological momentum, and it can last for as short as a moment, or compound for what feels like a life time. We often refer to this momentum as luck, in this case bad luck, but it is really just our way of trying to make sense of a series of unfortunate events that happen to come closely enough together to compound on one another.

One of my favorite examples of psychological momentum is connected with gambling. There is nothing more fallacious than connecting momentum with gambling, and yet every compulsive gambler does it and tries to make the most of a positive swing. In fact, because of momentum people tend to lose their money more quickly than they would if they played consistently. I have personally witnessed people beat the odds in games, such as black jack, and still lose because they begin to raise their bets when they were on a "losing streak" to regain their losses, and yet they bet smaller or the same when they are on their "winning streak". In roulette, they have a screen that shows the previous spins results and what is considered a "hot" number or a "cold" number even though every single round is completely isolated and has no correlation to the previous rounds. This psychological momentum we invent can be extremely dangerous to our wallets when playing games of chance.

Unlike gambling, the worst chance to make money are MLMs as they boast record setting "loser" percentages in the neighborhood of 99%. If there was ever a time to fold, it is when you encounter a MLM. Not only do they prey on the most vulnerable people in society, but they consistently utilize psychological momentum to deceive their consumers. They will say such things as, "Get out of that dead end job", "Don't make a bosses dreams come true instead of your own", or anything along the lines of "We are the answers to all of your problems". They aren't looking for the people on a positive path in life that have many great things going for them, but rather the people that look at their situation and continue to think about all the awful "luck" they have had.

MLMs aim to be the momentum shifter and change all of that negative psychological momentum into a positive. Yet MLMs are some of the worst proponents of true psychological negative momentum. Whatever little a pre-MLMer has before MLM will vanish as they isolate themselves from their work, their community, their friends, and their families. MLMers will disappear from civilization and their money will vanish from their bank accounts. Only when an MLMer loses everything pursuing the "dream" will they realize that negative momentum was perpetuated by their own minds and the MLM was responsible for all of their bad "luck".

MLM and Fake Reviews "Alternative Reviews"

Today's blog post is about fake reviews by MLM adherents posing to be fair, unbiased, and objective authors. There are many videos on YouTube and articles you can search for on Google that utilize provocative imagery or words to attract suspicious consumers looking for more information about particular MLMs. These pernicious articles are designed to deceive, and consistently use faulty logic to further their agenda. Even though anti-MLM information continues to be gathered and published, MLM propaganda continues to evolve and become more clever as well.

Here are some red flags to look out for when reading or watching a review:

1. Always look for a motive behind the article or video. Catchy titles such as, "[WARNING] Don't Join Amway Global before you see this!", or "Stop & Read: The Scam that is Rodan + Fields" are consistently utilized to generate traffic. At first glance, these authors appear to have important information that could help you make an educated decision, but it is important to investigate deeper. Titles are consistently utilized to mislead people and they are also used to fabricate accuracy about MLMs. 

2. If you are reading an article from a well-known source, such as Forbes or the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), then you must make sure the author has credibility! These magazines consistently use "Guest" posters or authors and they do not need any prerequisites to write about a particular subject. MLMers often utilize badly written articles that were published by these magazines as an attempt to prove efficacy of their position.

3. "Non-MLMers" posting about an MLM to drive traffic for their own products. There have been many videos on YouTube from people claiming to have no affiliation with MLM, and then their video will actually be about purchasing their software, literature, or seminar. Do not utilize their information as they will say anything to sell their products! As they say in the cop dramas, "They are not a reliable witness".

4.  MLM adherents posting videos or articles with defaming information about one "bad MLM" to make the MLM they represent sound better. MLMers have no camaraderie in this industry and will utilize information from legitimate sources to further their agenda. They will pretend they are reliable and objective because they do not have any direct affiliation with the MLM they are discrediting. Do not fall for this, and make sure you check the actual information written by the sources they utilize (if available). Again, these MLMers can utilize certain information and then twist it into something different. An example would be an MLMer talking about the old "Binary compensation plans" for MLMs like Herbalife, and yet their new MLM has come up with a "Unilateral compensation plan" that makes earning money better. This is a ruse, and any information they utilize to make their MLM sound great should immediately be discredited because of their financial bias.

5. Professional looking hyperlinks. It is important to look at the content and not just the hyperlink. MLMers will often utilize sources such as, www.thetruthaboutamway.com or www.networkmarketingpro.com, and not realize these are completely biased and faulty. They work very hard to appear legitimate, but it is important to dig deeper into the content and try to find the goal of the source.

As more knowledge surfaces about MLMs, the creativity and deception in these fake reviews also becomes harder to identify. It is important to take the time to investigate the article and the author as well as read the content and identify the motives. Make sure to ask thought provoking questions about the article or video, and also make sure not to specifically look for content that always aligns with your views. The internet is a valuable tool, but it should also be treated with caution as anyone can use it to create anything.

MLM and Bill Nye's New Show! Also "Alternative Business"

Today's blog post is related to a new Netflix series called Bill Nye Saves the World, and in particular his second episode titled Tune Your Quack-O-Meter. I grew up watching Bill Nye, and his show Bill Nye the Science Guy, and recently saw a few people posting about his show on Facebook. Bill has always had a great camera presence, and this reincarnated version of his children's show combined with Netflix's lax rules allows Bill to be his fully creative and interesting self while talking about more "adult topics" (as he aptly puts it). An important note is the political agenda behind the show. Bill has no qualms about letting people know he doesn't like the Trump administration and he uses extremely strategic mechanisms to help reinforce his political views (panel guests, experiments, segments with his "correspondents"). This is going to leave the audience very polarized as people may want to know about the subjects Bill is talking about, but Bill is going to give an overwhelmingly liberal biased view with the use of his scientific approach. This is one of the biggest issues I have with Bill, because science is inherently objective, however he is manipulating the objectivity of science to further his subjective point of view.

In Bill's second episode of the series Tune Your Quack-O-Meter he investigates alternative medicine. He centers the episode around the placebo effect and how its existence has made people believe alternative medicines are effective even though science suggests otherwise. At one point he has a correspondent go through sound therapy and the idea that certain sounds can help organs heal. The correspondent lies down on her back as the "Healer" proceeds to shout at her stomach in an effort to do something medical. He also explains how pH levels work and why an upset stomach needs something like Milk of Magnesia which is extremely basic instead of quack "Natural" remedies (the example he used actually contained vinegar...). The overall message of the show was, alternative medicine is just a fancy way of saying you are getting quack treatments, because if it did work and stood up to the painstaking scientific tests medicines have gone through, then it would just be medicine.

Anyways, as I was watching this show all I could think about were the people that describe quack MLM products as cures for all kinds of medical conditions. In fact, TINA.org (Truth in Advertising) did a study which showed 97% of MLMs from the DSA (Direct Sellers Association) made some kind of false medical claim. According to Bill's logic, if you can say something with 97% certainty in science, then it should be treated as fact until it has been disproved. Yet, MLMers continue to act as though their MLM products do work, and they also claim there are just a few bad apples saying incorrect things about their products, and the MLMs should not be responsible for those bad apples. It is time for MLMers to face the facts or at least ask their MLMs why they haven't gone through the same rigors of tests set forth by the FDA and why they haven't provided the same levels of documented proof for their alleged remedies.

This episode also revealed how MLM is an "Alternative Business", and should be treated as quackery in relationship to authentic businesses. MLMs have a track record of huge failure rates, long and costly court cases, high churn rates, and an exceptionally inaccurate representation of the expected outcome.Yet MLM doesn't fall under the same stigma as "Alternative Medicine" and can create new nicknames for itself once a certain stink starts to form. MLMs continue to be more pervasive than ever and have evolved into multi-billion dollar criminal enterprises. It is time to address MLM by its real title, "Alternative Business". It is business quackery designed to rip-off the most vulnerable members of society.

Source: Tina.org https://www.truthinadvertising.org/mlm-health-claims-database/

Source: https://www.thebalance.com/the-likelihood-of-mlm-success-1794500

MLM and 10 Common Behaviors of Abusers Pt. 3

Today's blog post will finish discussing an article and its focus on behaviors utilized by abusers. These behaviors can be recognized in many different facets of life, and they can especially be found in the higher ranking members of MLM. I utilize the term members because they do not like the term employees, and they infiltrate parts of people's lives that other businesses cannot. This is important to note, because the more involved MLMers are in people's personal lives, the more opportunity they have to be abusive.

7. They use their “power” against you: A boss or mentor, landlord, parent, spouse, etc. who has some degree of power over you may use their title to hold you hostage in some fashion. For example, the landlord may “forget” to mail your light bill to you ending up in your lights being turned off. Your boss may tell coworkers something you discussed with him or her in an attempt to create an “us against you” mentality. Or an immature parent may use their favorite child against you by talking about you and against you to the favorite child. The abuser may try any kind of way to control you with the leverage (or power) they believe they have.

First of all, I love the fact they use the term mentor, because that is a term MLMs use frequently to describe their upper tier members. Mentor tends to have a very positive connotation associated with it because it usually describes someone selflessly taking a student under their tutelage for the sole purpose of making that student successful. This is part of the manipulation as it leads people to give unwarranted trust for people they do not know. This will lead to the power of authority, and they can utilize that authority to threaten the student with failure if they do not faithfully commit to the teachings. By utilizing this term, people are subconsciously becoming submissive to abusers in MLM without realizing they are granting the abusers leverage. 
An example of an MLMers use of power to manipulate or deceive their downline is guilt tripping them into coming to each seminar. Regardless of the seminar being repetitive or useless, MLMers may suggest it is the one opportunity the downline has to achieve success, and failure to attend could result in continued struggles with the business or possibly even expulsion. This ultimatum leaves the downline member in a mental predicament resulting in a fear driven choice.

8. They are manipulative, controlling, and demeaning: Have you ever been questioned by someone who is trying to drill you on something? Have you ever experienced, at the hands of the abuser, constant questioning that makes you feel as if you are being blamed for something? If so, perhaps you should look at the situation again and again and again. Why? Because if you feel you are being “belittled,” manipulated, controlled, or humiliated, you probably are. Sometimes these feelings can come up in us when we are struggling with how someone is talking to us or expecting us to perform. This is normal. But if you are feeling these things for no apparent reason and cannot identify anything that could have triggered this response in the abuser, you are most likely being forced to take the abuse of the abuser. An abuser cannot function appropriately in relationships and will often show their “true colors” at some point.

This point is relatively straight-forward for MLMs. MLMers utilize questions proficiently to manipulate and control their downlines, such as, "Do you want the very best for you family?" or "Don't you deserve all of the best things in life and to make all of your dreams come true?". They are consistently demeaning people that are not part of the MLM and those that question their business or their motives. MLMers try to control downline's use of media, friends, family, and outside activities until they are completely converted. Absolute or 100% obedience is the only way an MLMer believes success can be achieved, and they will utilize manipulating and deceit to make downlines believe this is true as well.

9. They one-up you in a subliminal fashion: Most people know someone who one-ups them. I know about 20 of them. That’s who they are and they are most likely suffering from low self-esteem. Or…I am misunderstanding that they are not trying to one-up me. But there are some people, most often abusers, who will attempt to overshadow you, minimize you, or belittle you in a subliminal fashion. You may not recognize the “slight” right away, but you’ll eventually begin to question what the abuser could have meant by a comment. Some abusers have learned to give compliments that are also belittling. For example, a mother-in-law who doesn’t get along with her daughter-in-law may tell her daughter-in-law that she looks beautiful only because she went to bed early last night and would look better with her hair shorter. A colleague may say something like “Congratulations on earning your degree. I wish I had a degree. Some people can’t afford it, while others go broke trying to get one for show. You should be happy!” There is always some kind of negativity in the attitude, responses, or comments of the abuser. You may even begin to notice that the person is being very condescending and abusive but with a sweet or innocent tone of voice.

I haven't personally met MLMers that have done this, but I have read and written to many MLMers that do this over the internet. The internet MLMers are a cesspool of vitriol and nastiness. They act as though the people that oppose their views all came out of the same dumpster and couldn't possibly be successful in any endeavors. MLMers constantly lie about their monthly incomes and suggest they know people making millions of dollars. Even though they may be failing at MLM, they are succeeding by association due to the amazing mentors. I have told MLMers that I am in a family manufacturing business and help provide a good to people in need. I have a stable salary and am able to take time off if need be without concern about next month's rent. MLMers will still respond that I am only making "The man's" dreams come true, and that I am a prisoner or slave to my position. MLMers will state they have it better and will reiterate their freedom from a schedule or their dependence on another for a salary. This is their "one-up".

10. They leave you feeling drained, used, manipulated, and mistreated: If you feel abused, mistreated, manipulated, disrespected, envied, or treated poorly, don’t overlook these feelings because you are probably correct. There are times when we, as humans, can misread anything and can make a ton of mistakes in relationships. But I encourage you to focus on the constant and “chronic” feeling of being manipulated, mistreated, or even envied. I believe that humans are more sensitive and more spiritual than they believe they are. We know. We know when we are being mistreated and we certainly know when someone is against us. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to point out when someone else is mistreating us, no matter how kind they may appear on the outside.

This is a hallmark that many "failed" downline members have felt as they drop out of the businesses. The downline members will start to realize there never was an opportunity to be successful, and that they were the MLM upline's meal tickets. Downline members will realize the constant travelling to meetings and seminars along with the continuous purchases of MLM products and tools are worthless, and the wasted effort will have been for nought. They will realize they weren't really free, and they spent more time trying to run their MLM business than they would have normally spent in a "9-5 J-O-B".

MLMers have utilized these behaviors proficiently and the results speak for themselves. Millions of people have tried and failed MLM, and many have written their stories online. Some were involved for a short period of time, and some people were involved for decades. Ultimately the results are always the same as the founders and highest ranking members take the profits while they leave their dreamy eyed downlines penniless. The more devoted their downlines are and the more abuse their downlines are willing to withstand will result in the worse losses the downlines will endure.

If you have a story involving abuses from your upline and would like me to share it on this blog as a guest post, then please e-mail me and I will be more than happy to post it! Your stories are not as unique as you may think, and your stories are some of the most impactful resources we have to fight MLMs. I will keep your anonymity upon request.

Source: https://blogs.psychcentral.com/caregivers/2017/04/10-common-behaviors-of-the-abuser/ 

MLM and 10 Common Behaviors of Abusers Pt. 2

Today's blog post continues going through the list of behaviors used by abusers and frequently demonstrated by MLMers. It is important to note that MLMers do utilize the behaviors regularly, and these behaviors do not regularly come with red flags unless a person has cause to look for them. They are cleverly disguised behind an insidious persona meant to deceive consumers and the reason they continue to be pervasive comes from their ability to be successful with these behaviors.

4. They suffocate you with lies: As stated above, the abuser will often deny they are abusive because for the most part, the abuser cannot own up to his or her behavior nor can they acknowledge who they really are. It’s too painful to admit you are an evil person with little to no compassion or empathy. An abuser, from my perspective, is one step away from becoming a sociopath. Many abuser’s tend to lie and, as stated above, turn things around. Blatant lies are common. Circular reasoning or circular questioning is also common (i.e., taking a person around and around until the encounter begins to cause confusion). The truth is often not in the abuser.

There is a lot going on with this one, so we will break it into two topics:

1. The first part of this relates to my first paragraph about the insidious persona. MLMers will utilize love bombing, nice clothing, and an extremely upbeat mentality to lure consumers into trusting their intentions. These superficial lies help to mask the underlying lies which revolve around their desire to take a downline or consumer's money. MLMers will suggest they have nothing but the best of intentions, that they came from the same dark places in life, and that nobody else will care about the downline's desires. This ruse has been extremely effective in separating millions of people from their money.

2. The second part of this paragraph talks about the circular logic and reasoning. This has been an extremely important topic on all anti-MLM blogs because it is the number one weapon for MLMers against people that dare to oppose their views. MLMers talk in riddles and hardly ever straight forward about the important facts pertaining to the business. They utilize poorly constructed analogies, ludicrous metaphors, loaded or vague questions, technical jargon, and extremely white or black examples. All of these tactics are utilized for one major purpose, to avoid impactful questions. They want people to think less and follow more, and the better you can repeat their programming, the more likely you are to succeed.

5. They create cliques to go against you: Abusers sometimes lack social confidence, a healthy self-esteem, and “power” within their relationships. As a result, the abuser will often form an “alliance” with other people (sometimes with others similar to them), who can go against the victim or at least validate their incorrect view of the victim. An abuser may, for example, tell a close family friend that his wife doesn’t show affection and avoid any kind of intimacy with him. The abuser’s friend may say something like “wow, why would she ruin the marriage like that? I’m on your side, don’t worry.” The victim, not knowing this, may sense that the family friend is against her or doesn’t accept her anymore. The silent ostracism can be too much to handle sometimes. The victim or the abused may begin to feel uncomfortable around this family friend and even judged. “Silent abuse” causes second guessing, obsessing, and rumination in the abused or victim.

This particular abusive behavior is extremely important to recognize and often goes unnoticed. This is the behavior MLMers install in recruits and downlines to help transition them into a complete immersion with the MLM. By teaching people to separate from their current life to form a new life with MLM it eliminates their ability to be jaded by outside forces.

I had personally been told by an Emerald in Amway that he had my best intentions at heart and wanted me to be successful. He tried to tell me that I may need to leave my fiancee (now wife), if she wouldn't do the business with me. He attempted to form a clique within my own household and create resentment toward my partner! While I wish I could say my situation is unique, there have been many blogs and posts by others with similar stories, such as Anna Banana's blog, Married to an Ambot, and Joe Cool's blog, Amway - The Dream or the Scheme?. It is important to also note that cliques are not unhealthy as a whole, but rather it is the foundation of the clique that determines whether or not it is something good in which to be involved.

6. They create scenes: Scenes are often created by the abuser who likes to have control. Have you ever seen an abuser yell, scream, curse, or have some kind of temper tantrum in an attempt to control you, gain attention, and even an audience to feel sorry for them? I have. This can be 10 times worse if the abuser, who is creating a scene, is doing it in front of others they have created a clique with. This kind of scenario may be more likely to occur in families with strange dynamics or in workplaces where workplace bullying is occurring.

MLMers are an interesting case when it comes to this behavior. They are constantly trying to "Avoid Negative" and that would include making a scene, however there are many stories of MLMers imploding and releasing their wrath on their downlines. Anna Banana has frequently talked about the awful things her husband was subjected to by their upline platinum and Eric Scheibeler wrote a book about the abuse he had received from his upline diamond.

I personally haven't seen an upline create a scene around a particular downline member, but I have seen something equally as bad at the FED (Freedom Enterprise Days), held by WWDB (World Wide Dream Builders), an LOS (Line of Sponsorship), for Amway. As each diamond member came on stage they would routinely badmouth CEO's, "Corporate America", J-O-B's, and basically anyone outside of the business. This was part of their strategy of forming a clique against outsiders with the new recruits, and it isn't much different from someone throwing a temper tantrum about something they don't like in a giant clique of like-minded members.

Source: https://blogs.psychcentral.com/caregivers/2017/04/10-common-behaviors-of-the-abuser/

If you have a story involving abuses from your upline and would like me to share it on this blog as a guest post, then please e-mail me and I will be more than happy to post it! Your stories are not as unique as you may think, and your stories are some of the most impactful resources we have to fight MLMs. I will keep your anonymity upon request.

MLM and 10 Common Behaviors of Abusers Pt. 1

Today's blog post is the first installment of a three part series about common behaviors abusers use on their victims. My favorite website, aside from this one, called psychcentral.com, had an interesting post about the ten common behaviors or traits of abusers. Needless to say, there is a lot of abuse that occurs in MLM, but it is necessary to identify what those abuses specifically are and how to bring consciousness to the situations. These behaviors are not exclusive to any particular field and they could have very real relevance to other facets of your life.

1. They turn things around: Abusers are good at turning things around or making things fit the way they want things to be or appear to others. Abusers can be very sneaky, subliminal, and vicious. Their viciousness does not always have to be expressed behind an angry face. Viciousness can be displayed through a smile and, if you look closely at the abuser, through their eyes. An abuser can sometimes do very well cloaking themselves and covering their true intent, attitudes, and behaviors. Sadly, this is how they “capture” their victims.

MLMers are trained professionals when it comes to this type of abuse and they train their downlines on how to execute it flawlessly. This particular abuse was used on me when I was attending the FED (Freedom Enterprise Days) for my potential LOS (Line of Sponsorship), WWDB (World Wide Dream Builders) an extension of Amway at the time. It was the end of the second day of the event and I told my former sponsor that I did not want to attend the religious ceremony at the beginning of the third day. I was exhausted and the ceremony did not align with my beliefs. There was no potential benefit for my business by attending that service and I was not going to gain any pertinent information. Yet that didn't stop my sponsor from making me feel like a heel if I didn't attend and even threatened my conviction toward the opportunity. After attending meetings, reading books, and going to the first two days, everything could have been for naught if I chose to skip the opening ceremony and they would have refused my entry. He utilized coercion through guilt and vulnerability, and rewarded me with a congratulatory high-five when I caved in my morals.

2. They oust you when you oust them: The moment you decide that the abuser is not a positive force in your life, they can turn on you. Why should they continue to be nice to you if you are “calling them out” or pinpointing who the real problem is. The abuser will often retreat into an attitude of arrogance and denial. Some abusers refuse to acknowledge their pathological and unhealthy behaviors toward others. The best way to deny they are the problem is to get rid of you.

This is a hallmark of MLM. As soon as you break from their systems they cast you away and label you with a scarlet letter. You are a failure, a quitter, a hopeless loser, and anyone that listens to you will be condemned to failure in life as well. You are a contagious poison that must be quarantined from anything and anyone related to MLM. They will break off all ties and your friends from the MLM will quickly erase you from existence. If they cannot get you to conform to their control, then you will be expelled and you may never return until you renounce your wicked thoughts and conform to their beliefs.

3. They play “mind games:” Mind-games are some of the most evil things a person can use against you. Why? Because playing mind-games includes some degree of psychological and emotional control. When you are bonded to a person [you] come to trust them, you will most likely give the abuser the benefit of the doubt, forgive them, or sometimes even take their abuse. The victim will experience emotional and psychological confusion which includes second guessing, questioning, ruminating (i.e., thinking of something repeatedly until it begins to affect your mood), and obsessing. Once this pattern of behavior begins to affect your daily life, the abuser has won. Why? Because they are [now] in control of you and how you see the world and yourself. Mind-games may also come in the form of outright denial or a “my [word] against your word” attitude.

MLMers are the champions of mind games. They have the ability to talk out of both sides of their mouths and they are never wrong. They utilize jargon and complicated analogies to deceive their downlines and potential recruits, and they never specifically say how the actual business works. They have all the answers in a flawless system, and yet the system has a 99% failure rate. They tell you every seminar, book, and meeting is crucial to your success and that there is an endless amount of teaching, yet the system is supposed to work in either 10,000 hours or 2-5 years or 10-15 hours a week or whatever other line they could come up with. There is an endpoint and there isn't an endpoint according to MLMers. They want you to be able to retire and live your wildest fantasies and yet they are not retired or doing any of these things. They don't want anything negative thoughts and yet they are completely negative about anything non-MLM related. These people are wizards and they can transform themselves and MLM into anything a person desires, and once that person runs out of money or quits, they throw them to the curb never to be mentioned again.

These abuses run rampant through MLM and anyone that has been involved in any way has probably seen any one of these three. Unfortunately these abuses also spread to people that are not involved, or have never been involved but may have family or friends that are involved, and it continues to perpetuate a virus that spreads throughout populations across the globe.

If you have a story involving abuses from your upline and would like me to share it on this blog as a guest post, then please e-mail me and I will be more than happy to post it! Your stories are not as unique as you may think, and your stories are some of the most impactful resources we have to fight MLMs. I will keep your anonymity upon request.

Source: https://blogs.psychcentral.com/caregivers/2017/04/10-common-behaviors-of-the-abuser/

MLM and Social Media

Today's blog post is about the continued pervasive solicitations for MLM through social media outlets. It comes as no surprise that social media has been a great way to spread the MLM gospel, yet it continues to be a burden on relationships and continues to ensnare good and honest people. I recently had two different people post on my Facebook with MLM, and unfortunately neither were able to understand they were involved in a scheme. I have tried to diligently show people the issues with MLM, without beating them over the head with facts, in an attempt to have them reach a logical conclusion. Needless to say, I failed every time and have finally given up on trying to be rational with friends in an effort to maintain friendships.

The first friend that I removed had recently joined an MLM called Direct Cellars. Direct Cellars is an MLM involving wine and the idea is to buy your monthly wines until you have a certain number of people below you, then your wines are free. Also, if you pay for different levels of distributorship, then you will be paid a portion of other people's initial distributorship. The MLM is a blatant fraud as there is no actual distribution or sales of wines, but rather a monthly mandatory purchase of low quality wines at full retail that are delivered to your house. I went through how he was making money, how he was getting free wine every month, and how this was both a pyramid and a cash gifting scheme wrapped in one. Not only did he not understand this was not a real business, but he even tried to reach out to me again for the business opportunity and feigned interest in the daily events of my life. After I made a post on Facebook saying that I will not tolerate any more friends posting this crap and that they would be immediately removed, he responded 15 minutes later saying MLM is a good business and not a pyramid. I still believe the man is a good person but tremendously misguided, and I hope he snaps out of it soon because he will have a tough time dealing with the people he is damaging.

The second friend I removed posted before and after pictures of herself after using Modere for three weeks, or so she claimed. I gently tried to inform her that she needed to be careful about posting these pictures because they are in violation of the FTC's rules and regulations on how to properly solicit these types of products. She then vehemently defended the post suggesting it was nothing more than a progress update on her journey through weight loss (her before and after pictures didn't actually look like she had lost any weight, but rather pulled her pants up higher). I told her that would be fine if she hadn't put in the final sentence, "Thank you Modere", because that makes people believe they can achieve the same thing by just taking the product. I was again faced with a defense that she hadn't even listed the specific products she used, but above my comment in the thread she admitted that she was a distributor of the products. Therefore, it doesn't matter if specific products were listed or not, because she is marketing all of them.

Unfortunately, it got worse as one of her friends tried to suggest her post was completely appropriate and was not in violation of any FTC rules and regulations. Now I was getting attacked for trying to help an ignorant friend by some random person that had no idea what they were talking about. Instead of reading the particular section I highlighted from the FTC, the person went on a tangent about the FCC, and kept doubling down on her post's legitimacy. He, along with the woman who made the post, were fueling a perpetual cycle of ignorance and fraud, whether it was intentional or not, and they were beyond logic and reason. Again, there was no hope for a rational discourse about the situation and it turned into a hopeless fight that would have resulted in zero change.

Social Media is a wonderful platform that helps me get my daily dose of nostalgia mixed with spying into people's personal lives. It is a real life syndicated tabloid talk show that is endlessly entertaining, but not as terrible as shows such as Maury Povich or Jerry Springer. While it has its flaws, it continues to be a significant part of my life, and hopefully MLM can be made illegal sooner or later so I can continue to enjoy the various platforms without being plagued by business opportunities, before and after photos, and diet and supplement products.
If you have a story involving abuses from your upline and would like me to share it on this blog as a guest post, then please e-mail me and I will be more than happy to post it! Your stories are not as unique as you may think, and your stories are some of the most impactful resources we have to fight MLMs. I will keep your anonymity upon request.

MLM and Health Claims

Today's blog post is about an article written by Truth In Advertising (TINA.org) involving illegal or false health claims from MLM supplement companies. The article states, "Calling into question the Direct Selling Association’s commitment to consumer protection, a truthinadvertising.org (TINA.org) investigation has revealed that 97 percent of DSA member companies selling nutritional supplements have distributors deceptively marketing their products with unsubstantiated health claims." TINA.org's investigation is not only scary, but down right frustrating, as this industry continues to propose they have answers to major diseases through unregulated and untested products. These flim-flam companies have just as high a rate of failure as they do for their illegal health claims.

Some examples of their illegal health claims include, "From autism, and cancer to Ebola, there is an MLM supplement that is being marketed to cure, treat, mitigate, or prevent a wide variety of diseases, the ad watchdog’s findings show. " This is just the tip of the iceberg as fellow bloggers regularly see other health claims from distributors boasting about their miracle product cures. These MLM companies have gotten too big to regulate their distributors, and probably don't want to regulate them because the distributors are the bulk of their revenue. If the regulatory agencies are ineffective in policing these companies, and the companies are unable to police their distributors (or care to), then it is up to each individual to be aware and informed for their own protection.

MLM companies have no qualification processes to join and hawk their products. They give MLM distributors free reign to promote the products, and only create limitations on how they actually distribute the products. There are consistently false or illegal testimonials, photos, research studies, and references. Youngevity claimed to be working with Clemson's research institute, and Nerium claimed to be working with Princeton, both of these claims are completely false. John Oliver's twenty minute segment on MLM also eviscerated Herbalife and showed distributors hosting a meeting and claiming to help with heart problems and pregnancy. As long as you have a pulse and a couple of dollars in your pocket, then you are allowed to start selling MLM products.

Snake-oil companies have existed for far longer than MLM, and the MLM business model is not creative or new, but rather a convoluted pyramid designed to destroy people's finances. MLMs have not grown out of necessity for their products or their business model, but rather through top dollar donations, lobbying, settlements, SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) lawsuits to stifle first amendment rights, and continuous lies about everything involving their businesses. These people are not your friends, they are not interested in making you fabulously rich, they are not interested in curing your diseases. These MLM companies are here to take your money, get you to find more friends to take their money, and ravage your local neighborhoods until everyone is stuck with worthless products and no assets.

Sources: Truth in Advertising - https://www.truthinadvertising.org/tina-org-investigation-reveals-mlm-industry-rife-with-illegal-health-claims/

John Oliver - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6MwGeOm8iI&t=749s

If you have a story involving abuses from your upline and would like me to share it on this blog as a guest post, then please e-mail me and I will be more than happy to post it! Your stories are not as unique as you may think, and your stories are some of the most impactful resources we have to fight MLMs. I will keep your anonymity upon request.

MLM and a "Quality" Analogy

Today's blog post is about a recent stint of analogies that have been coming up on other blogs. The idea that MLM products somehow have better quality than other products is a myth that has been going around since the beginning, but the analogies seem to change and evolve over time. MLMers can't ever point out what that special ingredient, potion, spell, voodoo, or whatever it is that makes the product better, but they have no problem espousing that it exists, and that it makes their MLM product of the highest quality unlike the generic competition found at every other brick-and-mortar or online store. The price for these top shelf, top notch, grade-a, MLM products is always far higher than their competitors (http://themlmsyndrome.blogspot.com/2016/12/mlm-and-product-value.html), and it also is much more difficult to purchase because many require a membership. You may also have to sit through a pitch about the business opportunity, and in certain cases you have to purchase monthly, which makes these products far less reasonable to purchase.

So, how do MLMers attempt to prove that their company's products are of a higher quality? Do they attempt to utilize research from clinical tests? Do they research the ingredients from the competitors and do thorough analyses of the contents in comparison to their company's products? Unfortunately, the answer is a resounding no. Instead, they try to use technical jargon, mixed with circular arguments, and then transition into the bad analogies. It is important to note, none of these techniques have any veracity and are simply used to deceive and mystify.

One of the common quality analogies that continues to be used is the comparison between Mercedes and Honda. Their hypothesis is, if MLM products are more expensive than their competitors, then it is because of the quality. Similarly, Mercedes is more expensive than Honda, therefore the quality of Mercedes is better. Aside from the kindergarten logic being used, let's break down all of the flaws in this argument.

Higher price does not always mean better product. Yes, products of higher quality tend to be priced higher than those of lower quality. However, there is more than just this simple notion as the market place is more dynamic and has different tiers. You have to make sure that you are comparing two products that are in the EXACT same category, and the analogy above fails to do so. Honda does not target the same market as Mercedes (for the most part), and both have success for varying reasons.
Honda is designed to focus on an economical and simple vehicle, whereas Mercedes focuses on a luxurious and technically engineered vehicle. Mercedes and Honda both have specific regulations they must adhere to, and both must price their vehicles according to the market they are targeting. The bottom line is, BOTH have excellent quality for the markets they are targeting and they BOTH have great financial success.

A better comparison would be between Honda and Toyota or BMW and Mercedes. Not only are these comparisons involving the same target markets, but they are also involving the same countries of origin. When comparing these companies, price is usually the last thing to look at because it is more important to know which company has, more recalls, longer warranties, better safety standards, better gas mileage, better interiors, better longevity, and then somewhere down the line you can worry about the price.

Analogies like the one listed above run rampant in MLM pitches and it is important to remember that analogies are great for helping to understand, but they are not acceptable for determining facts. If an MLMer decides to answer your question with an analogy, especially if it is pertaining to something requiring data, then it is important to analyze what is actually being stated.

If you have a story involving abuses from your upline and would like me to share it on this blog as a guest post, then please e-mail me and I will be more than happy to post it! Your stories are not as unique as you may think, and your stories are some of the most impactful resources we have to fight MLMs. I will keep your anonymity upon request.

MLM and Realities

Today's blog post is about taking time to reflect upon my world. The reason I call it my world is, it is inherently unique to me as everyone has their own version of reality. One of my favorite expressions is, "There are three sides to every story: your side, my side, and the truth. And no one is lying. Memories shared serve each differently" (Robert Evans). I'm going to switch the order around but today is about exploring my version of MLM, the MLMers side of MLM, and then the truth about MLM.

My version of MLM is very dark. I have explored MLM relentlessly and come across the same MLMers and their logic ad nauseam. They have no ability to critically think, they have become completely warped by jargon and analogies, and they have been blinded by the insatiable desire to become the person with the most stuff. MLMs have become synonymous with a virus as they spread their opportunity through the general population. MLMs are a pervasive parasitic paradigm shift in pyramidal schemery that continues to plague society.

MLMers believe MLM is the answer to the mysteries of the elite. They believe it is a golden ticket to launch them from poverty to greatness, and they also believe they will be doing a noble service at the same time. MLMers generally do not believe they are harming anyone and simply want what is best for their family and society. In general, MLMers are harmless, simple people that just want to make a great life for themselves and their families. MLMers are also very spiritual people, and believe they will be right with god as long as they pursue this venture. They believe the world is full of corruption and that MLM is their way to fight back against the evils of corporations.

The truth about MLM is found in the FTC investigations, the court cases, and the words of the MLM leaders. The FTC has found certain MLMs to have problems which have resulted in them being warned, fined, revamped, or completely shut down. They have gone after all kinds of MLMs, supplement based, juice based, clothing based, currency based, vacation based, and many others. The only thing all of these companies have in common is their MLM structure. To date, not one MLM has been exonerated in court, and have only survived because of large settlements and agreements to change their troubled ways. They continue to be sued and settle regularly until they must abandon their business and start something new. Dateline had a former Amway leader talk about the tools scam and how completely terrible the business actually was, and Eric Schiebeler has written a book, Merchants of Deception, about his experience in Amway and its corruption.

At the end of the day, not all MLMers are bad people, in fact most of them are probably good people. They lead very simple lives, and they just want the best for the people they love. They are victims of crime groups that utilize psychological tricks to deceive and manipulate the MLMers, and they prey on their vulnerabilities. The worst way to describe most MLMers is, they are a group of people similar to Jehovah's Witnesses that want to take a moment to talk to you about god, except they are at Starbucks instead of your house and they want to present a life changing business opportunity.

If you have a story involving abuses from your upline and would like me to share it on this blog as a guest post, then please e-mail me and I will be more than happy to post it! Your stories are not as unique as you may think, and your stories are some of the most impactful resources we have to fight MLMs. I will keep your anonymity upon request.

MLM and Pluralistic Ignorance

Today's blog post is based on a recent article from Psychcentral called How to Avoid Groupthink on Your Team. This article figuratively screamed, "Read Me!" with that Orwellian title. The article talks about a particular issue within the herd or group mentality, called pluralistic ignorance. Pluralistic ignorance is group silence due to fear of asking a question about a particular topic that was not understood. The fear of being judged by the group as the only person who did not understand is extremely powerful and is a regular problem within large meetings or lectures. Teachers often emphasize the importance of asking questions by suggesting if a particular point didn't make sense to you, then there are probably others that also didn't understand. This is one of the best ways to combat against pluralistic ignorance.

An example of pluralistic ignorance could be a boss addressing their sales staff about a new strategy for marketing their products. The boss may use certain types of jargon that are confusing or vague which makes the staff have questions, or worse, complete misunderstanding of the new strategy. The staff, out of fear of looking foolish in front of the boss and their peers, may elect not to ask questions about explaining the strategy and instead remain silent until the meeting is over. Afterward, they may ask each other for help explaining the strategy from the meeting, only to find out nobody else understood either. This is where pluralistic ignorance is generated and is an extreme problem when trying to go over new material in front of a group.

MLMs utilize pluralistic ignorance to their advantage and consistently utilize technical jargon that new recruits couldn't possibly understand. In fact, many of the mid level members of MLM don't understand what they are talking about, which makes the pluralistic ignorance more prevalent. They do not do a good job of explaining the business opportunity, which includes describing how new prospects generate revenue, how the bonus structures work, what commitments are needed to make the business work (time, money, education), or even the statistics for success. Unfortunately, the more technical they sound in their explanations, the less likely people are to question their validity.

MLMs also use bad analogies and dreams to fuel pluralistic ignorance. They invent their own answers to questions that either, don't actually answer the question or shame the questioner. They insist upon never directly addressing major points, and emphasize focusing on the results and dreams of others. An example of this is when people ask if MLM is a pyramid. A common response will be something obscure and technically difficult for a prospect to understand while also being unnecessarily long. A common bad analogy is the famous, corporate America is a pyramid explanation, which is not only erroneous but is also full of technical jargon that would confuse people and make them fearful to ask more questions.

It is extremely important to ask meaningful questions and phrase them in such a way that you will not feel concerned about others opinions. This is an important skill to develop and the article does a great job of explaining how to practice and grow in group settings. The worst disservice you can do to yourself, especially when investing your time and money, is to not fully understand what the opportunity actually entails. At the end of the day, the group isn't responsible for your inability to understand, therefore you cannot fear their impression of you.

Source: https://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2017/03/01/how-to-avoid-groupthink-on-your-team/

If you have a story involving abuses from your upline and would like me to share it on this blog as a guest post, then please e-mail me and I will be more than happy to post it! Your stories are not as unique as you may think, and your stories are some of the most impactful resources we have to fight MLMs. I will keep your anonymity upon request.

MLM and Confirmation Bias

Today's blog post is about the concept of confirmation bias. This idea stems from the inappropriate or negligent strategy utilized to ascertain an answer to a question. Confirmation bias comes up frequently in science when people are attempting to find a desirable result in an experiment, and will sometimes grasp at straws or invent a conclusion. The same can also be applied to MLM as people attempt to prove the efficacy of MLM through faulty means.

Confirmation Bias: Confirmation bias, also called confirmatory bias or myside bias, is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms one's preexisting beliefs or hypotheses, while giving disproportionately less consideration to alternative possibilities. It is a type of cognitive bias and a systematic error of inductive reasoning. People display this bias when they gather or remember information selectively, or when they interpret it in a biased way. The effect is stronger for emotionally charged issues and for deeply entrenched beliefs. People also tend to interpret ambiguous evidence as supporting their existing position. Biased search, interpretation and memory have been invoked to explain attitude polarization (when a disagreement becomes more extreme even though the different parties are exposed to the same evidence), belief perseverance (when beliefs persist after the evidence for them is shown to be false), the irrational primacy effect (a greater reliance on information encountered early in a series) and illusory correlation (when people falsely perceive an association between two events or situations). 

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias

According to the Wikipedia definition, here are some of the methods MLMs use that would be considered confirmation bias:

1. If someone has a question about a particular part of MLM, for instance the expected amount of income a distributor can generate, MLMs will not talk about the income disclosure agreement. Instead, an MLMer might show pictures of flashy cars, mansions, boats, and money, which is misleading at best because only a fraction of 1% ever attain that kind of wealth. They decide to ignore the statistics, which have been designed to show the actual expectation of monthly and annual income.

2. MLMs utilize wholesome values to imply it is genuine and legitimate. MLMers will suggest the business has veracity because they are devout Christians, believe in matrimony, or they may be charitable. While these can be great qualities, they have nothing to do with a business being legitimate. It is important to look to regulatory agencies, such as the FTC and the SEC for guidelines on what makes a business legitimate.

3. MLMs utilize ambiguous evidence very frequently. They suggest there are a lot of successful people and then fail to mention anyone, or if they do, they mention only a few of the top 1%. MLMers may suggest the industry is thriving or is a multi-billion dollar industry, but fail to note that it has far more members driving that total revenue over a billion than blue chip companies that are worth far more in comparison (this is another way of saying MLMs are inefficient). Finally, they may something such as, "The people that are successful are the people who put int he effort, and the people who quit didn't try hard enough". Well, that may be true for some, but for most they do try really hard and they still fail. This is again a point they tend to leave out of the conversation.

4. Attitude Polarization is very big in MLM. I have had many debates with MLMers about their businesses and how the statistics reflect a very poor performance. The responses are routinely bizarre and suggest, the statistics came from a flawed source (often they come from their own companies), the statistics don't accurately reflect the overall business (statistics are designed to take data and make inferences about the data gathered), statistics can't quantify individuals (similar to the last one), or statistics are not real evidence (meanwhile they will call upon their own statistics as long as they suit their cause). This has become a rampant problem for people that are disillusioned by thoughtspeak (Orwell). They cannot rationally look at evidence anymore and have utilized programmed cognitive dissonance to rationalize the dissenting information.

5. Belief perseverance is also very big in MLM, especially after utilizing attitude polarization. MLMers will continue to pursue MLM even after being confronted with evidence because it feels good, or they think they are learning something useful, or they just want to do it and don't care about the results. This is often connected with denial, because no rational person would want to throw money away, especially if it was hurting others in the process.

6. The irrational primacy effect often comes into play when describing the opportunity for success in MLM. Unfortunately, as MLM grows the possibility for growth shrinks in an exponentially larger percentage. When MLMers describe the successes of their predecessors they are forgetting to mention that it was a different time, a different market condition, and a different knowledge base. All of these effect the new MLMers outcome, but they still rely on the fact that a previous person was able to be successful.

7. Illusory correlation happens the most, and often includes many of the previously stated confirmation biases. One of the most common illusory correlations is the shape of MLM and the shape of Corporate America are both pyramids, therefore they are both legitimate. Not only does this not make sense on an arbitrary level, but it doesn't make sense on a deeper level either. Yet it rolls off the tongue well, and MLMers continue to fool and deceive new prospects consistently with this terrible line.

MLMs frequently utilize confirmation bias to manipulate and deceive their distributors. They provide false analogies, unrelated information, and deceptive claims. They also go out of their way to discredit any dissenting information and opinions, and they are quick to sever ties with anyone that does not share their complete worldview.

If you have a story involving abuses from your upline and would like me to share it on this blog as a guest post, then please e-mail me and I will be more than happy to post it! Your stories are not as unique as you may think, and your stories are some of the most impactful resources we have to fight MLMs. I will keep your anonymity upon request.