Part of a good con is that group dynamics engender silence. The more people with dirty hands in on it, the less likely anyone will break ranks. The thing gains

Part of a good con is that group dynamics engender silence. The more people with dirty hands in on it, the less likely anyone will break ranks. The thing gains a momentum of its own. Afterwards, at the trial, everyone says; "My only crime was I didn't stop it or speak out". Very few of us are really denied that chance, except soldiers risking desertion. Justice must account for the genuine ability to walk away, versus bad faith. On the matter of Blutkitt, in his excruciating account of "Ordinary Men", C. R. Browning notes that even the members of Battalion 101 had a genuine (no bullet in the back) chance to walk away. Do today's white-collar bandits and digital fraudsters have a realistic chance to turn their backs on wrongdoing they encounter? Of course. But at the cost of losing a network of rich and influential friends. Are there examples in tech of people taking a courageous stance? Definitely. Roger McNamee is one random example who must have burned a few bridges when writing "Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe".