The Grifting Lifestyle
One commonality for a majority of people in today’s late stage capitalist economy is that they’re outside the designed parameters of success and face near-impossible odds of joining the top dogs unless they inherit money. It’s not poverty, but it’s not enough.
There is, in fact, a massive transfer of wealth in progress as the last of the Greatest Generation and an increasing number of Baby Boomers are dying, passing investments in real estate and securities to their heirs. It’s going to be the apogee of upward mobility for this century.
But when it comes to making money “the old fashioned way” (transitioning from being wage earners to investors) due to a strong work ethic and a little luck, trickle down economics has all-but-ended that possibility.
In the years after World War Two, there was an alternative path to increasing one’s economic status: a good union (or union adjacent) job and a foundational social safety net.
The way some people down the economic ladder think they’re going to gain wealth or at least tread water is through the “hustle.” Many people cling to the false promises offered in the gig economy, working a second or even third job even as the chances of “making it” are worn away by companies going through the process of enshittification.
The (mostly) Republican version of the hustle is the grift, which involves persuading consumers to pay for an overvalued product or service. It’s safe to say the money tree in MAGA-world for commoners is rooted in this form of quasi-legal theft.
Daily Kos founder/activist Markos Moulitsas detailed some of these enterprises in the wake of the recent TPUSA (Trump youth movement) conference in Detroit.
Freedom 2,0 Water - “It’s not just refreshing,” says the shill, “it’s rebellious, and it’s unapologetic to drink this in public.” .
Freedom (Jeremy’s) Razor Blades - Woke corporations spend all of your money on DEI. We spent it on a better razor,” they proclaim.
Freedom (Ultra Right) Beer - “Classic American Lager,” says the product page. ”Light and crisp enough to enjoy on the boat or golf course all day, full of flavor, and 100% Woke-Free!” Only $38.99 + $18.65 shipping per case.
Freedom (Trump) Sneakers - They won’t start shipping until July, so we can’t wait to see just how shitty these are when they actually get in people’s hands. $399 - sold out.
Freedom (Old Guard) Pet Foods - With Old Guard, you can provide premium nutrition for your dog without compromising your traditional American values.” You can choose different dog food products like BIG GUNS, ALL AMERICAN, PATRIOT POWER, and BATTLE BISCUITS.
Freedom (Blackout) Coffee - “Blackout Coffee was founded in Florida in 2018 because we were tired of giving our money to coffee companies that didn’t share our values,”
Freedom (Old Guard) Bank - Jan 6th defendants did not commit fraud or a financial crime that day so we can absolutely be their bank. In fact, we already are for some.
Those are just the companies hustling the TPUSA gathering. When you get up to the presumptive nominee level, there are even wilder opportunities.
Trump Bibles - “All Americans need a Bible in their home, and I have many. It’s my favorite book,” Trump declared in March, in a video posted on Truth Social. “I’m proud to endorse and encourage you to get this Bible. We must make America pray again.” ($59.95)
Trump Small Donors - “Sending eight emails and texts a day that promise an artificial match, threaten to take away your GOP membership, or call you a traitor if you don’t donate doesn’t build a long-term relationship with donors.”
Trump Loyalty (Black) Card - The METAL Trump Black Card is for the top 1% of True Trump Republicans. But these won’t be around forever. Once we’re sold out, we will not be making ANY MORE! So before the day is over, claim yours now. Your support will Make America Great Again! ($49.95 or more)
Truth Social - According to the company’s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Truth Social lost fifty-eight million dollars last year, after generating only $4.1 million in revenue
Finally, for those of you who want to learn more about the grifting way of life, I recommend The Longest Con, a forthcoming book (July 9 publication date) on the history of right-wing scams and frauds. It’s written by New York-based journalist Joe Conason, who personally knew some of the key figures in the scammy right’s history, like mobbed-up lawyer and Trump mentor Roy Cohn.
Via an interview with the author in Vox:
“The template for right-wing grift ... followed in McCarthy’s wake,” Conason writes. “By creating such an atmosphere of utter dread — and then promising that they alone could prevent America’s doom — [hucksters] induced thousands of suckers to hand over large wads of cash.”
As the conservative movement grew, the grifts grew with it. Conason pinpoints Barry Goldwater’s 1964 presidential run as a key turning point. The campaign produced a massive mailing list that scammers could solicit for donations to alleged political causes that mostly lined their own pockets. When these “direct mail” scams proved immensely profitable, they expanded, normalizing an ethos of grifting on the right that, ultimately, would reach its apogee in Donald Trump.
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I almost hit the “publish” button without mentioning Carl DeMaio, our local personification of grift. This Voice of San Diego article explains why and how his ballot initiatives never quite get on the ballot.
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Wednesday News to Peruse
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Leading chatbots are spreading Russian propaganda via Axios
To conduct the study, NewsGuard entered prompts asking about narratives known to have been created by John Mark Dougan, an American fugitive who, per the New York Times, is creating and spreading misinformation from Moscow.
Entering 57 prompts into 10 leading chatbots, NewsGuard found they spread Russian disinformation narratives 32% of the time, often citing Dougan's fake local news sites as a reliable source.
The chatbots presented as fact false reports, originating on those sites, about a supposed wiretap discovered at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence and a nonexistent Ukrainian troll factory interfering with U.S. elections.
NewsGuard conducted its research on OpenAI's ChatGPT-4, You.com's Smart Assistant, Grok, Inflection, Mistral, Microsoft's Copilot, Meta AI, Anthropic's Claude, Google Gemini and Perplexity.
NewsGuard sent emails to OpenAI, You.com, Grok, Inflection, Mistral, Copilot, Meta, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity seeking comment on the findings, but did not receive responses.
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Is AI About to Die from Exposure? By angryea at Daily Kos
I look forward to the coming AI winter, honestly. I have spoken about this before, but imitative AI offends me as a technologist. I cannot find the person who first said this (because AI has helped make Google completely unreliable) but it sums up the problem with modern tech extremely well: I don’t want AI that writers and draws for me, leaving me to do the dishes and laundry. I want AI that does the dishes and laundry for me so that I have more time to write and draw. The fact that the people in charge of these firms are doing the opposite pretty much tells you all you need to know about their concern for the rest of society.
Because there are many, many problems that technology can help solve, and many actual kinds of drudgery that technology could eliminate for us. But none of them offer the venture capitalists a return to the golden days of easy, explosive growth. They tried with crypto, and with NFTs, and now with imitative AIs. They went for the quick buck rather than the buck made by being helpful to society.
If winter is coming to imitative AI, I hope it snows long and deep. Maybe, just maybe, we can get technology that helps people solve problems more meaningful than how can I not pay people to create.
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Say 'A.I.' One More Time, I Dare You by Hunter Lazzaro at The Journal of Uncharted Blue Places
The problem is that the idiots in charge of these products keep proposing the stupidest possible "uses" for them, suggesting they perform duties like flying our commercial airliners or giving medical advice. They want to take a technology that still can't figure out how much wood glue you should top a pizza with, and they want to give it knives for arms and tell it to perform cancer surgeries.
And "AI" can't do any of those things in its current chatbot incarnations, because "AI" is hopelessly unsuited for any task in which success is actually, you know, important. What it's good at is offering up warmed-over bullshit, presenting it as confidently as possible, and sociopathically trotting on its way again with no interest in what happens next. Those are the jobs that can be automated right out of existence, and as fortunate coincidence those are also the salaries that are most bleeding companies dry right now.
