Local radio show had on “Psychic Renee” for an hour last night. She was talking on and on to one caller about how her dead husband left her suddenly so at least there wasn’t any prolonged suffering, when near the end the caller broke in and said that he died after a long illness. I swear to ghod her response was:
“But when he did die, he died suddenly, right?”
Because there’s no fundamental difference between people asserting supernatural powers and people using explicitly probibalistic models to try to figure out what’s more likely, right?
Lemme guess. You’re still bitter over paying the ten dollar cover to see Gary Shandling, right?
It’s the $20 ticket for Gallagher that really burns.
TL:DR
The great, ancient rule of law is the “Reasonable man” test. It holds, very simply:
“Would a reasonable man, with average knowledge have believed/done/said that?”
For this suit to succeed, you will need to show that a reasonable man would have believed the prediction of a “Psychic”.
Good luck finding the court where that happens - I suspect that, even if a jury were to find such a belief reasonable, the Judge would set aside that verdict. Assuming he didn’t already direct a verdict/dismiss for lack of actionable assertion, or otherwise throw your ass out of court while trying to keep a straight face.
Hey Betty - remember that “Freeman on the Land” moron you had last month? Well, I just had one that topped him!
The Baptist church a few blocks from my house in the slightly “better” neighborhood fits this description. Very Republican, very much the poor are who they are because g-d is punishing them for sin and the rich are blessed. It’s actually the most common pattern ofthe evangelical churches I have encountered.
I’ve known psychics that use algorithms and probability calculations in their work. It’s not that different from what some of the dating sites use. Perhaps someone should sue Match.com after not being able to find their soul mate?
Every time I scroll past this thread I read it as “physicists should be sued” and it confuses me.
Carry on.
Right after homeopathic medicine companies are sued for fraud despite the “not approved by the FDA” or “for entertainment purposes only” or whatever other crap they say on the box.
This may not be the same as psychics, but there are some local shamans who advertise in the newspaper, who claim to be able to use magical powers to fix problems with money, relationships, evil spells, etc., and many of them say “Payment after results” in their ads. So I guess you don’t pay them unless/until their “magic” works.
If things go right half the time they get paid even though they had jack shit to do with causing it to happen in the first place! KA-CHING!
Maybe I should look into shamanism as a career.
And weather forecaster? :eek:
Good news everyone. It is illegal, at least in New York:
I’m happy we have this law. No need to worry if a prediction is “too vague” to count as fraud. No need to worry if a “reasonable” person would have fallen for it, or if your poor grandma with dementia deserved what she got for being stupid. It’s just illegal, unless you are doing it for entertainment.