As I watch the politics swirl around the Occupy Wall Street movement, I find myself thinking about Bernie Madoff. Bear with me here; this might even make sense.

The Madoff affair, as you may know, was a classic case of “affinity fraud”; Mr. Madoff was able to gain the trust of many wealthy Jews by persuading them that he was their kind of guy. Affinity fraud lies behind a lot of financial scams — and political scams, too.

Right now, the campaign against Occupy Wall Street basically tries to get working Americans to turn on the movement, even though most people support the movement’s goals, by trying to make it seem as if the protesters are people not like them — whereas the plutocrats are. Hey, this has worked many times in the past. And it can operate in many directions: Occupy Wall Street should be shunned because they’re dirty hippies; Elizabeth Warren, who is running for Senate in Massachusetts, is not like you because, horrors, she’s a Harvard professor.

And now that I think of it, the generalized theory of affinity fraud extends beyond politics to things like financial analysis. I’ve marveled now and then about the continued popularity on Wall Street of inflationistas, who have been wrong about everything. I suspect that a lot of it is that economists who issue dire warnings about deficits and money growth come across as the kind of people they’d like to hang out with at the golf course, whereas bearded professors don’t.

So what to do? Within limits, one should try to allay unnecessary social dissonance.

If you’re going to have a demonstration on behalf of working Americans, can the drumming circles. The class warriors on the right want to convince people it’s really a culture war, and you don’t want to make their job easier. But there are limits.

No, I won’t take up golf.

Reader comments from nytimes.com

It’s one thing to be for or against something and another to be a protester.

This was true during the Vietnam War — I sat in on a couple of demonstrations and it just wasn’t me. Nevertheless, war protests make the point that some people are willing to go over the edge to achieve change. Trying to eradicate the protest only amplifies it.

Right now, Wall Street is not geared toward the flow of capital in the name of innovation.

It is geared toward robbing the poor to feed the rich. Investors always lose and the house always wins. But Wall Street should not be a casino; it should be a place where people invest in business. There are changes that could be made to discourage speculation, market manipulation and fraud.

This social movement might get that done.

— Name withheld, New York

The case can be made that members of the Occupy Wall Street movement are the ones committing affinity fraud. Just look at their slogan: We are the 99 percent. That is correct, except most of us don’t join drum circles and appropriate public parks for private use on an indefinite basis.

— R., Virginia

Does affinity fraud explain how we continue to protect wealthy people, banks and corporations? We all secretly see ourselves striking it rich any day now. Things will have to get a lot worse before they can get any better. After all, the really good reforms came from the depths of the Great Depression.

— David B. Schuster,

New Hampshire Political affinity is what makes people vote against their economic interests and their own well-being. This is how Tea Party candidates won elections.

— A. S., New York

Had similar demonstrations happened in China, and if the Chinese had dealt with them the same way the Americans did, the United States Congress would have passed a resolution in support of the protests , and the president would be complaining about the violation of civil rights.

— N., New York

Mr. Krugman, you visited Zuccotti Park recently, and you must have noticed that not everyone there was a slacker in dreadlocks looking for a handout. There’s not much you can do to combat guilt-by-association perceptions as long as people see only what they want to see.

Observational bias continually reinforces stereotypes. The best thing the Occupy movement can do right now is to continue to exist.

— Phillip Wynn, Ohio

Even if their efforts are in support of a good cause, Occupy Wall Street protesters are merely getting written off as smelly, work-shy hippies.

To this end, I always turn up in shirt and tie to convince other counterintuitive protesters to show up!

— Steven Clarke, Britain