So, I'm a receiver and cashier at a small gift shop in a "spiritual" nonprofit's visitor's center. I should say, in advance, that I kind of hate my job just because I'm very passionate about science, and I know, if not a lot, probably more than most, and the place where I work misuses sciencey-sounding terms like "energy" and "quantum" to perpetuate misinformation. Just wanted to open by explaining my complicated bias.

Anyway, the organization is having a conference on "healing," and the main speaker is a total scam artist. The conference itself is basically an infomercial for the snake oil he sells. Financially affluent people come from all over the United States to watch him talk about what you need to "heal" and why his products can do the trick. Then, they come into my store and buy the products like their lives depend on it... because he told them they did. When we were closing up, I saw him. He looked as stereotypical as possible. His suit was A) turquoise B) way too big, and C) wrinkled. He's old and bald and short, so he has to look up at the people he's trying to fuck with. Not that there's anything wrong with being bald, short, and old... I'm short and bald in real life, and old inside. I just want to explain just how much he looks like the bad guy from a Disney movie.

One of his most prominent lines of products is a series of little vials of oils. The store charges $35 a vial for them, but on his site, it's $40 for a third of an ounce. I don't know what he tells the people in the conference itself. I've never had the stomach to watch him, but when they come out, they'll buy as many of those $35 oils as they can, and the thing that really gets me is that he doesn't disclose what the blend is. He markets the product as "A secret blend of essential oils." Anyway, even though I'm just a cahsier in the situation, I'm the one physically taking peoples' money for something I can see right through, and even though they are pain-in-the-ass customers, I still feel guilty for not warning them that the person they just spent three hours listening to is only in this for the stacks of money they're piling up.

Just wanted to get that out of my system.