Saturday, September 22, 2012

VIDEO: Cult Expert Steven Hassan discuss cult and MLM with Robert Fitzpatrick and Doug M. Brooks Esq.

This video is rather long. It's 40+ minutes where Robert Fitzpatrick, a pretty famous (or infamous) opponent of MLM, and Doug M. Brooks, a lawyer who sued several MLM companies on behalf of affiliates, have a talk with cult expert Steven Hassan, on how MLM is cult-like.

Keep in mind that Fitzpatrick, while well-researched, has a bias. He is quite convinced that MLM is simply disguised pyramid scheme. I don't believe he's completely correct, but he is well researched, and you should listen to what he had to say even with his bias.





Multi-Level Marketing, Network Marketing exposed from Steven A Hassan on Vimeo.


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3 comments:

  1. [blockquote]
    "Keep in mind that Fitzpatrick, while well-researched, has a bias."
    [/blockquote]

    Everybody has a bias of one form or another. Always. Biases are like accents--you only notice everyone else's, but it's not really possible to SEE/HEAR your own. You can be aware of its existence, conceptually though.

    [blockquote]
    He is quite convinced that MLM is simply disguised pyramid scheme. I don't believe he's completely correct
    [/blockquote]

    In threads on http://saltydroid.info, you try to give examples of an MLM that's not a pyramid scheme. But the situation you describe, since it has no or virtually no recruiting incentive isn't really Multi-Level Marketing is it? No. It's just Direct Selling with no or virtually no Multi-ness in it at all.

    Next we can go on to try to find the non-scam Direct Selling examples. Those do exist. Although I would once again argue that if you have to spend a lot of effort trying to sell someone something, then maybe the thing you're selling doesn't have much inherent value anyway.

    --
    Furry cows moo and decompress.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Re: Bias -- The problem with the critics is sometimes they consider their side a tautology, and finds anyone who questions their reasoning process as hostile, then instead of discuss their reasoning process (which is probably sound), they shut you out as if their reasoning is not to be questioned. That's as crazily cultish as some pyramiders in their avoidance of "negativity": you don't think exactly like us, you don't belong.

      Re: MLM's similarity to pyramid scheme -- those were never deniable. It's the truth. The question is that gray area... not only where is the line that defines "legal", but where are various schemes along the scale, from pure direct sales (1 on scale of pyramid-ness) to pure pyramid scheme (10).

      Delete
  2. I have a question for you...

    How would a LEGITIMATE, non pyramid scheme MLM company would have to be for you? Can that even exist?

    ReplyDelete