

Yes. It is all a scam and the people cheerleading it are either in on it or one of the “useful idiots” (to paraphrase Lenin’s purported catchphrase) that all scams need to continue.
And you think these “smart people” can’t be taken in by such an obvious scam? Madoff ran his really obvious scam for seventeen years before he got caught out. It turns out the “smartest people in the room” aren’t quite as smart as they thought.
Also lefty-loosy, righty-tighty, or if you want to translate from the Spanish expression “la derecha oprime y la izquierda libera” (“the right oppresses and the left liberates”) that’s sage advice too.