You are correct @calumam.
It is incredible how people do not want to take responsibility for their actions. Like you, I had no skin in Arise but I had deals similar to that over the years. At the end of the day, I had to accept that nobody make me put my money where I did. I was the one who pushed the buy button.
Yes there are people who run cons and mislead. But the way people throw out the word scam, it is an easy way to degrade from which, the person, really has little way to defend him or herself. Yes it is like racist or terrorist...once branded, it is next to impossible to lose the Scarlet A.
It's something we are going to battle with for generations to come. Probably at a heightened rate as this movement progresses since the onslaught from the Governments -> Public is going to get more and more drastic when they try to clutch onto their broken system.
It's always the people who are willing to open the door who get shot first, but they pave the way for the rest of us to come through and push change. They are the most remarkable people on the planet and people need to wake up and support these heroes.
Cons and scams are ages old, they will be around until the day the world blows up. It's just a damn shame that people can't think for themselves. The impulsive, irrational behavior is everything the banksters have programmed into the majority of our population. It's gut-wrenching, but it's what happens when smart malicious people have power and massive influence and they learn how to control the weak.
I'm just listening in to the @bluerocktalk show from the other day with Jared Rice and you can tell from the sincerity in the guys voice that he was a man of the people. It's a shame that Arise took the hit, but like I said it's the guy who opens the door.
The change that Arise would of potentially made would of rocked the crypto world. It's no wonder it's been burned.