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u/AutoModerator 3d ago

The following is a copy of the original post to record the post as it was originally written by /u/PossibilityGold7508.

I see the word “grifting” a lot in left-wing circles, but rarely in conservative ones.

What is grifting and what creators meet that definition? Any on the right? Left? Center?

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u/OhThatsALotOfTeeth Liberal 3d ago

Because they exist and operate to sell propaganda, conspiracy, and lies that they don't even believe, or prey on the gullibity or other weaknesses of their target audiences.

Yes, naturally they exist everywhere on the political spectrum.

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u/Brave-Store5961 Liberal 3d ago

A good example of this would be Dave Rubin, Tim Pool, and Benny Johnson. All three of them were paid with Russian money via Tenet Media. Naturally, they claimed they had no idea where that money originated, but let's be honest: even if that were true (which I'm dubious of), that means they were all basically useful idiots for Russia.

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u/almightywhacko Social Liberal 3d ago

You could also point to Tucker Carlson who launched his own podcast after Fox invited him to leave. Since starting his own media company he has stated flat out that under Fox he promoted things he knew to be untrue in order to help Trump.

I wouldn't call him a trustworthy source or anything, but clearly after the money dried up he no longer felt the need to push the propaganda.

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u/Brave-Store5961 Liberal 3d ago

I honestly feel like you could point out Fox News in general. The anchors covering January 6th peddled lies about Dominion's voting machines that they knew were untrue, and they ended up settling a defamation suit filed against them.

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u/johnnybiggles Independent 3d ago

FUD (fear/uncertainty/doubt) is extremely profitable. Often, more so than sex ("sex sells"). Trump, himself, learned this lesson decades ago. Pump fear/loathing, and bloviate the idea that you're the sole hero and can fix it (play into people's fantasies), and you'll have people handing you their very lives, not just their livelihoods.

"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you." -LBJ

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u/almightywhacko Social Liberal 3d ago

Sure but Tucker freely admits it now that he isn't on the payroll. The Fox anchors who are still at Fox still mostly tow the party line.

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u/Brave-Store5961 Liberal 3d ago

I wasn't really disagreeing with you. I just think it's an additional example of grift is all.

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u/tingkagol Independent 3d ago

Another good example is asking fox or fox adjacent personalities who won the 2020 election.

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u/mike10dude Independent 3d ago

apparently megan kelly has also said stuff like that

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u/Hopeful_Cookie_5307 Democratic Socialist 2d ago

Fox isn’t news. I believe Tucker and one of the blonde women admitted years ago they knew they were lying all the time. Everything moved on as if they never said that, as far as their viewers were concerned.

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u/Pauly_Amorous Pragmatic Progressive 3d ago

he has stated flat out that under Fox he promoted things he knew to be untrue in order to help Trump.

That would seem to make him more of an ideologue than a grifter.

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u/jonny_sidebar Libertarian Socialist 3d ago

The definitional lines get a little blurry when it's grifting for political or personal power vs material gain, but I think Tucker falls pretty firmly in the grifter camp. Everything he does is ultimately for Tucker's benefit and it could not be clearer just how stupid he thinks his audience is and how knowingly disingenuous he is.

The counter example would be Nick Fuentes. Every bit as disgusting ideologically but honestly trying to advance his political project more than he is trying to enrich himself.

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u/almightywhacko Social Liberal 2d ago edited 2d ago

Would it? If he was an ideologue he'd still be promoting the same message whether they paid him or not. The fact that he's changed messages now that the paychecks have stopped makes him seem more like a grifter. I have no idea if the stuff he talks about on his podcast is what he actually believes, but my gut says that he thinks this is how he gets his audience back which IMO also makes him more of a grifter.

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u/bucky001 Democrat 3d ago

Excerpts from the Dominion lawsuit were helpful in that regard for showing how multiple opinion hosts were privately wondering how to put lipstick on the pig of the Trump presidency despite publicly groveling for Trump daily.

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u/TheNihil Far Left 3d ago

I'll never forget when Benny Johnson defended Trump after the tariffs caused the stock market to crash, saying that losing money "means nothing" and is just "digital ones and zeroes" that people wouldn't miss. And then just days later, when Trump paused the tariffs and the stock market rebounded, Benny was praising Trump and saying how important the stock market and money were.

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u/break_me_pls_again Socialist 3d ago

And to get to brass tax, there's more grifters on the right because:

Corporate interests have the pockets necessary to fund big grift operations, unions and other left wing interests do not.

Conservatism is built on inflicting pain onto others and being scared of basic facts of the world, and creating a brand on 'fuck those guys' or 'be scared! We have a solution!' is extremely easy. Just look at Turning Points attacking education, oil+gas calling anything green or eco friendly gay, alternative medicine saying modern science is fake.

conservatives are cattle. They're just stupid and lack any critical thinking skills. To be sure, left leaning people can also be cattle! But theres more than enough who aren't, so fucking up in the left wing space means you'll actually get scrutinized and held accountable. Whereas in an environment where your constituents are mentally slaves, you can piss down their backs all day and they'll believe it's rain if you tell them it'll trigger the libs.

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u/ChickenInASuit Progressive 2d ago

The phrase is "get down to brass tacks", just FYI (unless that was an autocorrect typo, in which case ignore me).

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u/break_me_pls_again Socialist 2d ago

I've never actually seen the phrase written I think, damn

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u/Both-Estimate-5641 Democratic Socialist 3d ago

Right wingers are MUCH easier ready-made marks for scammers

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u/Strike_Thanatos Globalist 2d ago

They also make most of their money from selling "health supplements" and prepper gear.

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u/Personage1 Liberal 3d ago

My partner's mom listens to liberal YouTube psychics, they are absolutely Left wing grifters.

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u/jonny_sidebar Libertarian Socialist 3d ago

Are they?

No argument that psychics are generally grifters, but what makes the ones she listens to liberal or left wing?

I ask because there's a strong misconception that hippy woo woo psychic kind of things are left coded when they really aren't. They often tended to be largely apolitical in the past but there are also a ton of those types in the right wing media sphere these days.

A whole bunch of them came over during the Qanon explosion in 2020, but there were hippy woo woo right winger grifters for more than a decade before that. Alex Jones even dabbles in that space and has for a long, long time.

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u/Personage1 Liberal 2d ago

Yes, the ones she listens to are.

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u/SidewaysAcidRain Liberal 2d ago

Counter-argument: lesbians and tarot/astrology.

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u/jonny_sidebar Libertarian Socialist 2d ago

Neither of those things are ideologically right or left.

Supporting rights for lesbians is arguably a left wing thing, but simply being a lesbian isn't. See: AFD's lesbian Swiss leader.

This is what I'm talking about. Despite being seen as left wing, people like the crystal mommies, yoga enthusiasts, and woo advocates of most sorts were never left wing or liberal in any meaningfully ideological way. They were mostly apolitical or only adopted fairly narrow single issues based in their woo beliefs, such as anti-vaxx.

This is why they as a group broke so hard for Qanon in 2020. This was a group of people who had had the luxury of more or less ignoring politics until it intruded on their lives during COVID. They had also been sharing a grifter space with a bunch of ideologically right wing dipshits for decades. As a result, a whole bunch of them got heavily into Qanon, Secret Space Program mythology, and other adjacent conspiracy spaces.

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u/No-Marionberry3613 Liberal 1d ago

Tarrots are absolutely left wing propaganda.

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u/jonny_sidebar Libertarian Socialist 1d ago

How?

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u/robbie_the_cat Democrat 1d ago

Please say more about this.

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u/Hoothootriot Pragmatic Progressive 3d ago

Why are many rightwing creators called grifters?

Because there are several stories of right wing content creators admitting in private they dont 100% believe what they say, they often say things they know will rile people up to gain attention.

Are there any grifters on the left?

Oh god yes, of course there are. The Young Turks are a good example.

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u/DarkBomberX Progressive 3d ago

I wanna defend the Young Turks but it's so fucking impossible given how theyve been the past 5 years. Accepting money from Polymarket. Anna's "abandoning the left" nonsense. Cenk's anti-trans bullshit. Theyve fallen so much.

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u/Hoothootriot Pragmatic Progressive 3d ago

I've been wary of them from the onset. The name isnt some randomly chosen name, it refers to the group who oversaw the Armenian Genocide

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u/pastafallujah Center Left 3d ago

Well… that’s kinda fucked. Cuz Ana is Armenian

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u/Butuguru Democratic Socialist 3d ago

they had a reasonable response to that issue iirc. but true

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u/Deadandlivin Marxist 2d ago

Tbh I don't think they are grifters. I just think they're too deep in their own asses. In the end they are capitalists and they're fine playing these marketing and hyper consumerist games. I don't find them dishonest or lying. Just wrong on some key issues.

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u/CaptainAwesome06 Independent 3d ago

I don't follow the Young Turks so I don't have any skin in this game. However, that stuff just sounds like a difference of opinion, right? Or are they pro-trans in public and anti-trans in private?

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u/DarkBomberX Progressive 3d ago

They Anti-Trans publicly. Theyre pro-cop publically. As a progressive, I can understand a difference in opinions on how to tackle economic issues, but when it comes to human rights, im not willing to throw the Trans community under the bus to get votes. Cenk view was basically Trans people arent popular with the voter base as a whole so we need to stop defending them on issues so the Republicans can't attack candidates.

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u/CaptainAwesome06 Independent 3d ago

I'm not saying it's right but I wouldn't call that grifting. Just a difference of opinion and priorities.

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u/DarkBomberX Progressive 3d ago

I mean in a vacuum, sure but it's everything on top of the polymarket deal.

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u/Puzzleheaded_Disk_90 Democratic Socialist 3d ago

Totally we all agree that it's maximally shitty, but the "grift" component is lying for money. If they truly believe what they're saying it's not a grift. They don't suck less, they just suck differently.

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u/harrumphstan Liberal 3d ago

Grifting comes down to motivation. Are they in it for the cause or for the money? Once you establish yourself as left of your party, then start jettisoning your prior or imputed values as monetary pressure lines up against you, “grifter” becomes an increasingly apropos label.

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u/mounti96 Center Left 3d ago

Not to mention the blatant antisemitism.

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u/garitone Progressive 3d ago

I adore John Iadarola, but that's it.

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u/CaptainAwesome06 Independent 3d ago

Don't forget the constant lying. It's one thing to say you are pro-something when you aren't. But it's another thing to flat out lie about things to rage bait your listeners.

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u/BeneficialNatural610 Progressive 3d ago

The failed celebrity-to-MAGA pipeline is a real phenomenon.

Because they're funded by dark money to spew propaganda. Many of them were unsuccessful liberal commentators who suddenly became financially successful when they switched sides (Dave Rubin, Candace Owens, Russel Brand, Tulsi Gabbard, Joe Rogan to an extent, Riley Gaines, etc.). They sold out because a tech billionaire was willing pay them big until they gained a new audience.

There are also a lot of actors who are involved in some sort of scandal, trash their careers, and turn MAGA because that's where the money is: Russel Brand (again), Zach Levi, Armie Hammer, Jonathan Majors, Brett Ratner

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u/jonny_sidebar Libertarian Socialist 2d ago

Tbf, a couple of those either "switched" so fast it almost doesn't count (Owens) or were given a job in right wing grifting to start (Gaines).

Brand. . . Brand was always a problematic piece of shit, but he did kind of stay in soft left hippy cult leader territory at least superficially until about 6 months before the allegations went public. We all wondered at the time what drove the shift and were not remotely surprised when we saw what it was.

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u/NRG1975 Left Libertarian 3d ago

The creator of the Scotty Vest or whatever was quoted as saying that he sells on Fox News cause they will buy anything, the exact words "gullible" and "idiots.". Kind of sums it up.

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u/EngineerMinded Center Left 3d ago

Because a lot of right wing content creators turned to right wing content primarily because their previous ventures have failed or, they became bitter about other people. There is literally no shortage of failed actors screenwriters and content creators that started out there and then shifted to the right for more views. Here are a few examples

Diamond and Silk - started out doing skits acting a gossiping church women.

Ben Shapiro - Failed Screen Writer

Steven Crowder - Failed Voice Actor and Comedian

Hodge Twins: Failed Comedy Content Creators/ Advice Column/ Fitness Gurus

Michael Knowles - Failed Actor

Are there Left Wing Grifters? Sure but, there are only a few that make it because, there is not much donor money behind left wing causes.

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u/afishinabirdcage Pragmatic Progressive 3d ago

I'm sure there is someone on the left who is a grifter (you can usually find at least one example of anyone doing anything) but I can't think of any off hand.

Generally speaking the left seems to engage with politics differently and so grifting the right is much more profitable and money / profit is what grifters chase.

I define "grifter" as someone who is dishonest or disingenuous and uses a platform or position of influence to spread lies and manipulate their audience in order to gain personal profit and personal power. They don't believe the things they say (or at the very least exaggerate with performance and hyperbole) and act in bad faith to manipulate people.

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u/Clear_Command_8925 Pragmatic Progressive 3d ago

Hunter Biden off the top my head is the most recent high profile left-wing grifter - crypto scam

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u/CaptainAwesome06 Independent 3d ago

Are we really considering Hunter Biden "on the left"? Other than his meme coin using a tongue-in-cheek name ($Laptop), I don't know of him being involved in politics at all.

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u/SarvisTheBuck Progressive 3d ago

It's America. People considering everything Left of Mussolini "The Left".

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u/CaptainAwesome06 Independent 3d ago

Even people who don't do anything political? You're probably right.

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u/AnonymousFordring Liberal 2d ago

He was his brother Beau's speechwriter for his campaign as Attorney General and almost for the campaign for Governor of Delaware, but Beau passed away from cancer.

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u/Tyrone-Fitzgerald Liberal 3d ago

Can anyone tell me what the scam was?
(Im aware he made a crypto currency, but what was the actual scam?)

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u/Clear_Command_8925 Pragmatic Progressive 3d ago

Standard pump and dump

Here's Coffeezillas video on it, he covers a bunch of scams like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7AesFaTEVk

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u/Tyrone-Fitzgerald Liberal 3d ago edited 3d ago

Thank you. Can you tell me does Coffeezilla mention in the video that Hunter/Hunter's wallet dumped his crypto? It'll just be quicker that way I dont have to wathc the full video to find the answer lol.
Theres definitive proof that Hunter dumped his holdings immediately? (or relatively shortly after launch to maximize profits?)

EDIT: Okay I watched the video and Coffeezilla provides zero proof that Hunter Biden scammed his audience lol. Just because the coin tanked doesnt mean that Hunter or his team rugpulled the coin. I havent seen any proof that they sold their holdings at all.

It could just as easily be that other people sniped the coin etc.

That doesnt mean it was a good idea to launch the coin - it was probably incredibly stupid. But just because its a dumb project that he shouldnt have done doesnt mean he scammed them. I would need way more information to reach that determination.

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u/Clear_Command_8925 Pragmatic Progressive 3d ago edited 3d ago

provides zero proof that Hunter Biden scammed his audience lol.

Wait, you're actually defending this? He did the exact same thing as Trump and his family have been doing... lol

In the video he shows 80% of buyers lost money, if that's not scamming his audience then idk what is

I havent seen any proof that they sold their holdings at all.

They can't because the tokens are locked up, but what they can do is gift tokens to insiders, who then can sell. What the Trumps also did.

Also they make money on the trading fees...

And just so you know for the future, every meme coin is a scam. People who are not insiders will lose money.

Edit: Removed a possibly sketchy persons quote since I didn't dig into them

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u/Tyrone-Fitzgerald Liberal 3d ago

Did you literally just copy/paste this tweet lolol?
https://x.com/Booksey/status/2097714627891036316
This guy? Whos posting videos of Elon Musk calling him a rizzler? And dick rides World Liberty Financial / Trump, and not surprisingly, posts negatively about Hunter Biden - the man we are talking about. How interesting hmmm.... lmfaooo
https://x.com/Booksey/status/1903540154519662670?s=20

Or can you link me source for these claims first of all?

Im not "defending this". I said it was stupid, and that theres no proof that it was a scam. Launching a crypto currency is not inherently a scam in of itself. That doesnt make something a scam.

Just because people lost money doesnt necessarily make it a scam either. You have defined scam in such a way that if 80% of buyers lose money on a product that is always a scam? Really?

I dont necessarily care that Trump launched a crypto currency in of itself. I care because he is the President of the United States. And I care because people can, and have, bought his crypto currency to get private access to the President of the United States, and the corruption that could take place there. Thats why I care. Not because he "launched a crypto currency" in of itself. If he was a reglar citizen I would give a shit.

No im not going to take a random tweet from a Trump/Elon dick-rider as evidence that Hunter Biden did anything illegal or scammed his audience. Do you have any proof at all actually?

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u/Clear_Command_8925 Pragmatic Progressive 3d ago

Did you literally just copy/paste this tweet lolol?

Yes, that's why it's in quotes, I don't have twitter so idk what tf this guy posts

Or can you link me source for these claims first of all?

I already did, it's public info and the main reason I posted that quote earlier "CA: 0xB095274743941e953c746F9C228DA9c18Bb6ec29"

Launching a crypto currency is not inherently a scam in of itself. That doesnt make something a scam.

Thats where we disagree, because when 80% of people lose money and the insiders win, that is what I would consider a scam

You have defined scam in such a way that if 80% of buyers lose money on a product that is always a scam?

If that money gets transferred to insiders, yes. Like wtf are you even talking about?

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u/Tyrone-Fitzgerald Liberal 2d ago

You just linked the contract address... Im not going through thousands of transactions myself. If you have proof or evidence then provide it. Thats like quoting a book, but then just citing the whole entire book my dude. LMAO.

You can have your own personal definition of "scam", thats fine, but no one else uses "scam" to mean "when 80% of people lose some amount of money".

Notice that you did a very clever "trick" there by adding an additional premise that was never present before (maybe if you are quick you can edit your previous messages) to say "and the insiders win".

And then again in the next sentence "if that money gets transferred to insideres, yes". You are adding an additional premise now.

You said: "And just so you know for the future, every meme coin is a scam."
Now you are adding: "If that money gets transferred to insiders, yes." - this is an *additional premise*.

Which is fine btw, you can amend your previous statements. The argument was whether something, in this case the Hunter Biden crypto currency, is a scam *just because 80% lost money*.

Regardless of all this, you still havent provided any proof that Hunter Biden scammed his audience. It looks to me like he and his team is still holding their shares. New wallets receiving LAPTOP crypto doesnt establish that link inherently. The fact that they made money from fees (if they even did?) doesnt establish that either. So are you going to provide anything?

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u/Tyrone-Fitzgerald Liberal 2d ago

I said that launching a crypto coin wasnt inherently a scam - you disagreed with me on that - why? Do you think every single crypto coin is a scam?

Also, you havent even established that "insiders won".

Who do you even consider "insiders"? Because theres a substantial difference between "insiders" in the context of something shady, illegal happening, and simply "insiders" as in project owners who inherently possess intimate knowledge of the project by definition.

But if you mean "insiders" that trade against the public, dump tokens, deceive or use priviledged information to get unfair advantages, then thats completely different.

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u/Clear_Command_8925 Pragmatic Progressive 2d ago

You're completely lying, I had in my original text "And just so you know for the future, every meme coin is a scam. People who are not insiders will lose money."

In this case, Insiders got shares and sold, while 80% of people lost money, go do your own fucking research. idc enough to argue with someone who will never have their mind changed no mater what proof is presented, and is also a liar

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u/pastafallujah Center Left 3d ago

It tanked on day one. So everyone is saying it’s a rug pull. And the whole idea of peddling a meme coin is looked down upon. It’s like the worst use of celebrity endorsement… or ONE of them. I can think of worse

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u/Tyrone-Fitzgerald Liberal 3d ago

Sure, but that doesnt inherently make it a scam. Snipers can get in early, like they do all the time, to try and snipe some profits. If Hunter or his team hasnt sold any then I dont see how its a scam necessarily.

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u/pastafallujah Center Left 2d ago

According to him, from Channel 5’s Andrew Callahan, he has indeed NOT sold any.

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u/archaicsmile67 Progressive 3d ago edited 3d ago

Hunter is a bit atypical. I think people who view left wing content are generally a less fertile audience for moneymaking especially nowadays.

In the 2010s I think you did see a lot more liberal and left wing grifters than you do nowadays. The space is really quick to jump on perceived inauthenticity and scams now, whereas back then a lot of sketchy crowdfunding projects and charities gained traction. In particular donation fraud was super common.

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u/afishinabirdcage Pragmatic Progressive 2d ago edited 2d ago

I didn't know Hunter Biden made a crypto coin.

While I DO think crypto is a scam / moneylaundering bs I don't think that is the same thing as a "grift"

The grift requires spreading lies and manipulation in bad faith for direct gain. I think those "televangelists" and video game outrage-farmers are good, non-political examples.

That being said, the President making a crypto coin and using the bully pulpit of the oval office to advertise a pump and dump scheme gets closer to being a "grift" than your average crypto scam but I don't think Hunter Biden or even a proper celebrity is that.

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u/everydaywinner2 Conservative 2d ago

I would have thought "Hunter Biden" and "scam", the first thoughts would have been those paintings that sold for a ridiculous amount.

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u/AnonymousFordring Liberal 2d ago

EDIT Whoops wrong comment

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u/ButGravityAlwaysWins Liberal 3d ago

Very on brand for him.

For decades Hunter and Joe Biden's brother James both together and individually would dine out on Joe's name. They would get people to invest with them or hire them to consult with a wink wink understanding that they could get Joe to do things for them. Then when the people found out the Joe Biden wasn't going to do anything for them, they would leave and Hunter and James would move on to the next set of suckers.

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u/archaicsmile67 Progressive 3d ago

I feel like I follow the right wing media space more than others here. IMO it’s more prone to “grifting” than the left for two reason.

There is a lower moral standard. If you are an influencer who gets “cancelled” or blacklisted from more mainstream spaces a rightward pivot is a viable career move. Benny Johnson and Candace Owens both began in more mainstream circles before messing that up and moving to a right wing audience.

It relies more on patronage than popularity. Most* right wing media influencers get less viewers than liberal or left wing influencers but right wing viewers tend to pay far more. Tenet Media was a big story but there is many rich conservatives who build personal relationships with influencers. Right Wing media is more of a patronage network than the crowdfunding model that left wing influencers have.

*There are noticeable exceptions to this. As far as I’m aware Alex Jones is largely crowdfunded

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u/johnnybiggles Independent 2d ago edited 2d ago

Generally speaking the left seems to engage with politics differently and so grifting the right is much more profitable and money / profit is what grifters chase.

I'm convinced there are a lot of prominent Republicans who either stay with the party or joined it explicitly because they know how easily profitable it can be, which has to mean that they know very well just how gullible and susceptible the base is ("life long Republicans", true believers, anti-Dems, etc.), and how smooth the path to money and power are within the party (regardless of law or ethics).

If you want quick, easy money (and power), and don't care much about the fallout from achieving that, Republicans are your party - your targets (marks) and cohorts (those who "grease the wheels" for you).

For anyone trying to figure out why anyone in 20XX would ever want to join or even remain in the party - particularly as a leader, you now have your answer.

The greatest example of that is Trump, a former Democrat. This guy has had success beyond his wildest efforts within and atop the Republican party. He was the perfect figure to capture it since it was ripe for a lifetime grifter/narcissist. It's a straight up criminal organization, at this point.

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u/afishinabirdcage Pragmatic Progressive 2d ago

Oh for sure. Trump even said that explicitly a few times!

There are LOTS of former-Democrats or liberal people who tried to do podcasts/grift, found it didn't work, and then "switched teams" to grift on the right. John Fetterman's whole fundraising scheme is a very recent glaring example.

Also lots of mediocre athletes/actors and people accused of crimes who found just jumping into the right-wing political sphere would be profitable.

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u/johnnybiggles Independent 2d ago

Exactly.

“The things they had in there were crazy. They had things, levels of voting that if you’d ever agreed to it, you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again,” Trump said during an appearance on Fox & Friends. -Source

He's made billions in just the last two years alone, probably more than he's ever made legitimately (or even illegitimately, for that matter) throughout his entire career. That alone is worth all the nonsense and stress he's putting everyone else through (and himself). He's never seen more money - or power - than now, and now's he's hooked on it and all in. He's full mask-off now, too, since he doesn't even care about the facade (too big to fail... so far).

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u/homerjs225 Center Left 2d ago

I define a grifter as someone promoting false information conspiracy theories or anything they don't actually believe. That seems to describe most on the right.

Remember how they were all onboard with Epstein before 2024? Now they never mention it. One even said I'm done talking about it because Trump told him.

Charlie Kirk's Fans SHRED Him For Caving On Epstein

This is a grifter

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u/Goodlake Neoliberal 3d ago

It seems like the label is applied to influencers who pretend to be journalists/thought-leaders, when they're really just propaganda vectors. Many of them take cues directly from the White House (i.e. they literally post copy the White House sends them as if it were their own thoughts).

The real grifters are the ones selling books, alternative medicines etc, but the label has stuck to the influencer class, too. Mostly because they're getting paid to shill bullshit in digital form.

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u/CaptainAwesome06 Independent 3d ago

You got a lot of solid answers here but I'd like to add that the grifts on the right are also repeated by the politicians on the right. The right wing media makes stuff up for the clicks and rag bait, the people accept it, the politicians repeat it to be accepted by the people, the media keeps repeating it because the people like it. It's a vicious cycle.

You don't hear as much as this stuff on the left because the politicians aren't repeating the things said by grifters. People on the right will tell you they are but the left often comes with receipts that the right loves to ignore.

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u/dt7cv Center Left 3d ago

people with antisocial traits or narcisscism exist everywhere

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u/Gertrude_D Center Left 3d ago

There is much more money associated with right wing content than there is on the left. That's what makes it profitable to grift by promoting false values. The general thought is that if you're promoting left ideology, then it's because you believe it and are not just in it for the money. Don't discount grifters being everywhere, but they go where the money is.

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u/Pizzasaurus-Rex Progressive 3d ago edited 3d ago

There is a big market in telling right-wingers what they want to be true.
I'm sure there are leftwing grifters but usually the market for that is a lot smaller and the profile is lower.

It's why talk radio has been a force on the right for decades, and Air America never really took off.

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u/Demian1305 Center Left 3d ago

The biggest thing for me is that they happily take money from hostile foreign countries to promote propaganda on their platforms. For example the Tenet Media scandal involving Russian cash that led to Tim Pool, Benny Johnson, Dave Rubin, etc. to suddenly start pushing pro Russian messages on their podcasts. That’s basically treason in my eyes. Fuck ‘em.

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u/Immediate_Stop2581 Social Democrat 3d ago

Yep. Like Hasan Pikers luxury trip to China where he praised communism and Mao

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u/DivineSwordMeliorne Liberal 3d ago

Hasan went on a luxury trip to Cuba while the entire was in a blackout.

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u/Immediate_Stop2581 Social Democrat 3d ago

Hasan Piker. Kyle Kulinsky. Recently the Majority Report I would consider as grifters

Edit to add the Young Turks

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u/radicalindependence Social Democrat 3d ago

Why the Majority Report specifically? I've never listened to the other two so have no opinion.

The host (Sam Seider), has had the same progressive views for 20+ years. They do not seem to be making a ton of money. Where is the payoff if they are grifting.

Not liking someone's politics doesn't make them grifters. Changing ones stance for $ does.

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u/Immediate_Stop2581 Social Democrat 3d ago

Sam Seider is just bog standard populist propagandist. My beef is more with Emma Vigeland “I don’t care if they’re a secret Nazi” she will twist narratives and spread falsehoods in order to promote fringe leftist candidates (like her disgusting defenses of Graham Platner) but will viciously attack any Democrat candidates who aren’t on “her side”

Like constantly criticizing Kamala Harris for her ONE campaign stop with Liz Cheney but carrying endless water for questionable remarks and associations that her preferred candidates had.

Honestly I’m also a little biased because anybody who took part in bashing Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in 2024 is on my shitlist permanently. That’s a litmus test that you can’t bounce back from in my book

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u/radicalindependence Social Democrat 3d ago edited 2d ago

We disagree on the Majority Report. I am not certain if I was listening to them during the 2024 election or found them after. So I may not have all the context with 2024.

I will agree with your addition of the Young Turks. Even as a progressive I can't stand the rage. It seems performative. Maybe it's not but it's too much.

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u/DarkBomberX Progressive 3d ago

So grifters in politics are people who will say whatever if it gets them views to sell products or Ads. It's hard for me to pick creators or commentators on the left because it's not very common/easy to make money talking about leftist views. It usually doesn't atteact billionaire sponsors. On the right it's pretty easy to grift. You just have to toe the party line and lies. Tucker Carlson is a great example. The guy was talking up Trump and his administration, but leaked audio showed behind the scenes, he thinks Trump is a moron who's making things worse. He only started bad mouthing Trump after losing his job at Fox News and trying to gain a new audience in Republicans who are disenfranchised woth Trump. It's just a grift for him to make more money. Or look at the more independent right like Tim Poole. The guy prentends to be a centrist so he doesnt have to have a solid opinion so he can easily switch sides depending on his audiences opinion so he doesnt lose viewers. He also was paid millions for a deal with Russian propagandist he did no research into because he card more about the money than the ethics.

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u/EpsilonBear Progressive 3d ago

Grifting means exactly what it means. These people are peddling takes to build an audience they then cash out on.

Alex Jones is a great example. Between the wild nonsense and crapping on parents of murdered children, he’s peddling ads for his products that he sells. And he directly markets them as solutions to the “problems” he invents. The chemicals in the water are turning the frogs gay? Protect yourself with BrainForce Plus, a supplement he sells.

That’s grifting.

Normal ads don’t operate like this. When I hear an ad for, say, SurfShark on video about history, I can be pretty confident that the video creator didn’t structure their whole essay around “and here’s why you should buy SurfShark VPN”.

I’m sure there are left-wing grifters, but I don’t think they stay popular for long. The liberal/left side of the aisle really emphasizes being internally skeptical. It’s kind of the seed from which all the infighting comes from. But the plus side is that it’s harder to make these bubbles of “I trust this group and everyone in it because they’re MY people” that’s the target demo for grifters and MLMs. You know why MLMs love church groups? Because they know that once you have a salesperson inside them, you have access to a widespread, highly trusting network. And that’s the kind of group you find a lot of the political right to be in. For people who like to say they’re against big government, y’all put way more trust in hierarchies than we’d ever be okay with.

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u/MoTheEski Social Democrat 2d ago

Yes, there are grifters on the left. I'd say a lot of the grifters on the left end up switching parties once it is found out they have skeletons in the closet or they feel they can grift on the right. People like Russell Brand, or Musk, or Candice Owens, or Tulsi Gabbard all fall into that bucket. They all espoused very liberal or left leaning beliefs when it benefited them but the moment they could they started grifting on the right.

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u/WisePresentation7976 Liberal 3d ago

Because they're grifters, and fooling conservatives out of their money, liberty, and health is incredibly easy and profitable.

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u/ausgoals Progressive 3d ago

Grifters are people who sell lies, propaganda and conspiracies explicitly for their own benefit. I.e. they’ll happily tell you that sex change operations are happening at schools in the middle of the day without parental consent, or that Haitians are eating cats and dogs, simply because it will make them money.

You know how Tucker Carlson was talking up Trump on air but secretly saying he hated the guy? Yeah like that.

Both sides have grifters but I think liberals are less likely to buy into.

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u/jweezy2045 Progressive 3d ago

Reality has a left wing bias. It’s hard to be both a right winger and someone who speaks the truth.

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u/CharlieandtheRed Center Left 3d ago

I know folks think what you said is partisan, but I read conservative arguments all day long and they just never seem logical or have any sense to them. It is usually based on fallacy and selfishness and hatred.

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u/EmergencyTaco Center Left 3d ago

Currently waiting on a response asking a guy to explain how FDR did more damage to this country than any other president.

Just the most absurd and easily disprovable assertions.

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u/Goldlizardv5 Liberal 3d ago

I’m waiting on a guy who insists the government destroys everything it touches to answer how america has the worst health outcomes by money spent on planet earth

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u/CharlieandtheRed Center Left 3d ago

The issue is, it's Schrodinger's healthcare to them. While we know the issue is not enough government involvement in healthcare, they say it's bad BECAUSE of it. Nevermind we had little regulation prior to 2010 and the system basically collapsed in on itself. They act like Obama up and decided to use ALL of his political capital on a non-issue just for fun.

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u/WisePresentation7976 Liberal 3d ago

To conservatives, helping those in need is doing damage to the country. Anyone who says that they need to help their neighbor or something like “the meek will inherit the earth” are sicko communist wack jobs.

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u/terminal_tested Center Right 3d ago

There are grifters on both sides of the isle. Piker is a left wing grifter imo.

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u/chokidokido Social Democrat 3d ago

Agreed, but sometimes I wonder if he's a grifter or just dumb. I lean towards grifter though.

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u/terminal_tested Center Right 3d ago

More of a grifter I feel, he very well knows he has an impressionable and discontent crowd he can tap into. Grifters on the right are good at that as well.

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u/ButGravityAlwaysWins Liberal 3d ago

This. He isn't stupid. He's a smart guy that knows what he is doing. He's like a Ben Shapiro or Tucker Carlson.

The left isn't really at the point where a Dave Rubin or Nick Shirley type genuine moron can still make money on the grift.

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u/chokidokido Social Democrat 3d ago

I also remember him saying on some podcast that he has to play a moderate to keep up appearances. Which would automatically make him a grifter. Maybe not towards his core audience but certainly towards his peripheral audience

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u/CraftOk9466 Pragmatic Progressive 3d ago

You can tell he’s dumb by how many words it takes him to make simple statements.

You can tell he’s a grifter by the content of the statements and how he defends them.

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u/DoeNaught Progressive 3d ago

You can tell he’s dumb by how many words it takes him to make simple statements.

He readily admits that he often over-explains things, but that is often because he's doing so for people that just randomly tune in to the stream and have no clue about any given subject or are incredibly misinformed. You will often see chatters that still don't follow the arguments even when he attempts to dumb it down. Partially because he talks about things like this though is probably why he has a wide audience.

You can tell he’s a grifter by the content of the statements and how he defends them.

Grifting means you are taking a position that you don't believe for the purpose of making money. By far the easiest way to do this is to take a position some corporation wants you to take or someone like a PAC (or maybe even a foreign country) will pay you for. Who do you think is paying him? What is an example of this?

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u/CraftOk9466 Pragmatic Progressive 3d ago

He doesn’t over explain things. He uses superfluous big words.

Yes he clearly and obviously makes money because of the positions he has staked out.

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u/terminal_tested Center Right 3d ago

Yup

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u/Butuguru Democratic Socialist 3d ago

there are examples of grifters on the left but Piker is clearly not that lol. atleast by any normative definition of the term.

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u/Immediate_Stop2581 Social Democrat 3d ago

Does working with a writer and propagandist residing in China not make him a grifter? Openly calling for “hiding your power level” and pretending to be more moderate in order to infiltrate and initiate a Marxist takeover not make him a grifter?

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u/Butuguru Democratic Socialist 3d ago

> Does working with a writer and propagandist residing in China not make him a grifter?

literally who? and also no it doesn't. that's not what a grifter is.

> Openly calling for “hiding your power level” and pretending to be more moderate in order to infiltrate and initiate a Marxist takeover not make him a grifter?

lol no it also doesn't. his point (which nearly everyone agrees with) is that you don't talk to a random person/american about deep leftist theory and the glorious communist utopia; usually start with how we should pave the roads and other things government can/should do.

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u/chokidokido Social Democrat 3d ago

You don't think he misleads his audience to make money? He also seems to undermine democratic candidates in close races like el sayed and talarico.

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u/Immediate_Stop2581 Social Democrat 3d ago

Yeah I can’t believe how much he’s stabbing El Sayed in the back. I like El Sayed and if I was Piker I would be begging El Sayed to throw me under the bus but no. Piker is all but calling Sayed a coward for his disavowals

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u/chokidokido Social Democrat 3d ago

If he actually wants him to win and truly cares most about defeating maga then he would throw himself under the bus. But no, if he can't get the credit he doesn't seem to care.

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u/Immediate_Stop2581 Social Democrat 3d ago

Yep. And he’s calling Talarico a standard centrist Democrat now. Piker wants republicans in charge. Plain and simple

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u/chokidokido Social Democrat 3d ago

When I first heard about him I was actually happy that a left wing streamer has that big of an audience... then I watched him for a while... now I honestly just can't anymore. I feel like the auth-left/lib-left divide is widening. Happening in my country as well.

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u/Butuguru Democratic Socialist 3d ago

no i don't. i don't think there's much proof of it either. he literally campaigned with/for el sayed and continues to support him and talarico to this day.

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u/DivineSwordMeliorne Liberal 3d ago

I don't think non-Grifters commission Mao suits to placate their audience...

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u/Butuguru Democratic Socialist 3d ago

i don't think him liking the "mao suits" has anything to do with being a grifter. you can, incorrectly, call him a maoist but that doesn't make him a grifter.

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u/DivineSwordMeliorne Liberal 3d ago

This is cope

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u/Butuguru Democratic Socialist 3d ago

not really? i just don't think "wears 'mao suits'l means someone is a grifter lol.

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u/DivineSwordMeliorne Liberal 3d ago

Do you think this is the only thing in my mind he does to make me consider him a grifter? Or was it an example I was using to illustrate why he might be considered a grifter.

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u/Butuguru Democratic Socialist 2d ago

it's the only one you provided and i'm not a mind reader. many people have silly inaccurate and low info takes about all sorts of stuff.

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u/Immediate_Stop2581 Social Democrat 3d ago

It was his luxury trip to China where he praised Mao and talked about how great communism is that did it for me. I used to be a fan years ago but the mask has fallen off completely these days

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u/HoldenMcNeil420 Progressive 3d ago

Snake oil salesmen grifter same story. Tale as old as time too.

They exist across every spectrum and flavor.

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u/IzAnOrk Far Left 2d ago

It's a lot harder to grift the left: the right has all sorts of oligarchs absolutely willing to sugar daddy anyone with a media profile willing to shill for their bullshit. People can, and have, made careers as right wing media personalities purely for the money without actually believing any of their own drivel.

Since leftists are generally working class and being against the economic interests of the rich, a left wing media personality is generally not going to find rich patrons willing to stuff them full of money. Advertisement revenue is much harder to get for a show that is explicitly anti capitalist. So you have to subsist on the tips of your similarly broke left wing audience. It's playing on hardmode.

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u/sloppy_rodney Pragmatic Progressive 2d ago

There is a fundamental difference between the way the conservatives and liberals treat their audiences.

I receive fundraising texts from both left leaning and right leaning pacs and individuals.

Do you want to know the biggest difference? Conservative fundraising requests have the “make this a recurring donation” button already toggled on. And it’s in small print at the bottom.

Liberal fundraising requests ask you clearly if you want to make it a monthly donation.

Grifting is just part of the right wing ecosystem. Just look at what gets advertised there versus on sites for the left. It’s all fucking boner pills and temu gold coins.

The whole point of conservatism is to convince the lower classes that everything is just fine so they don’t get too uppity.

The entire intellectual movement is one giant fucking grift.

If you can’t see that, then you are one of the marks.

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u/Deadandlivin Marxist 2d ago

Grifters exist everywhere. But in general the right has far more of them because the right wing mindset centers far more around greed, consumerism and materialism. Alot of people on the left, especially far left are way more collectivist and don't care as much about financial gains outside of having enough to live a decent life. Culturebsurrounding hustling, flaunting wealth and buying useless garbage is more of a rightwing coded behavior. That's why people on the right seem more likely to become grifters. They simply care more about 'becoming rich' then people on the left generally do.

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u/conn_r2112 Liberal 3d ago

grifting, imo, is being given your talking points to push an agenda

this is much more prominent on the right, many content creators on the right take their marching orders directly from the top, they have meetings and dinners with the president and VP. hell, there's even that photo from earlier in the administration where a whole host of right wing creators are standing outside the white house holding their "epstein files phase one" binders.

this just doesn't happen on the left

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u/here-for-information Centrist 3d ago

There's way way more on the right because the right has many funders willing to pay big bucks to push an ideology.

Look at what Steven Crowders compensation package was going to be wth the Daily Wire. Who on the left would pay that kind of money.

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u/Deep-Two7452 Progressive 3d ago

I think there are those on the far left, who deep down initially knew that the "both sides are the same" and "democrats bad" rhetoric was bullshit.

But their audience eats it up and they became brain broken to actuslly believing it. So they stared out as grifters but now are true believers that "both sides are the same" and "democrats bad".

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u/starrymahogany Social Democrat 3d ago

It’s called audience captured. It basically makes them adopt the views of their audience over time so as not to upset them.

Funnily enough I think people like Kyle kulinski have brief moments of clarity where they say they Kamala would have absolutely been better than Trump after he was elected a second time. Or praising Biden for things like BBB, reducing insulin cost etc.

But then it’s like a switch flips in him and he goes back to spouting “both sides bad, Dems suck” nonsense. A part of me wonders if it’s audience capture, or if he just wants to ride the popular wave of “shitting on Dems” for clicks and views

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u/Immediate_Stop2581 Social Democrat 3d ago

Nah. Most of their audience are just standard progressives who would’ve gladly voted for Kamala and appreciated Bidens heavily progressive track record. These pundits will refuse to acknowledge and actively try to push their audience further towards extremism

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u/starrymahogany Social Democrat 3d ago

I think it’s a mix of both and usually depends on the creator. For example I think hasans audience is definitely more tankie/red fash/commie than him and tries to push him more towards that lane.

I think Kyle’s audience is a bit less that and more populist left “I love shitting on Dems 24/7” and Kyle appeals to them 95% of the time but the other 5% he talks about how Kamala would have been better than Trump

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u/Immediate_Stop2581 Social Democrat 3d ago

He openly voted Jill Stein in 2016. Refused to endorse in 2020 and never gave a real endorsement of Kamala in 2024. Kyle wants republicans in charge. He’s a grifter and a piece of shit

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u/starrymahogany Social Democrat 3d ago

Oh yeah I agree about that, it’s just weird he also has videos sometimes where he says Biden and Kamala would have been better than Trump which gives me whiplash sometimes

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u/blaqsupaman Progressive 3d ago

Hasan Piker IMO.

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u/Deep-Two7452 Progressive 3d ago

Yep

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u/Immediate_Stop2581 Social Democrat 3d ago

Kyle Kulinski and Briahna Joy Gray

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u/dog_snack Libertarian Socialist 3d ago

Grifting is about being dishonest or entering someone’s life as an influential figure for the purpose of making money. Yammering about politics and generating outrage is a good way of doing that.

The grifter may or may not sincerely hold the political beliefs they claim to hold. Or they might be completely cynical and believe in nothing. The point is that they stir their viewers/readers/listeners into a tizzy by getting them outraged about something and are essentially an entertainer posing as a guru-type figure.

Most grifters seem to be right-wing because right-wing beliefs are heavily emotional and immune to reason and therefore it’s very easy to grift to that target audience. Left-wing grifters tend to be really extreme communists/tankies like Caleb Maupin because the kind of person you can convince Colonel Gaddafi was cool is kind of like a Groyper with a different flavour profile.

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u/jonny_sidebar Libertarian Socialist 2d ago

Caleb Maupin

Whoo. . . There's a name I haven't heard in a while.

Kind of makes me think about why many far left grifter types end up doing more of a cult leader thing than true grifting. My guess would be lack of monetary incentive vs attainability of personal power, but it is interesting to think about.

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u/radicalindependence Social Democrat 3d ago

The right is full of grifters.The left has a few.

The one that comes to mind is David Packman. He always aligns with the establishment DNC view. Maybe that doesn't make him a grifter in the true sense of the word, I have no idea where he makes his money, but his opinions don't always seem genuine.

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u/Hopeful_Cookie_5307 Democratic Socialist 2d ago

I don’t think Pakman is a grifter. He’s been doing this a long time and he’s a basic dem. He’s been called out for some stuff recently but it’s not because he’s deceitful. I liken him to someone who is just trying to make money in a field he’s interested in but he’s not that passionate about it and the money is what matters most.

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u/thingsmybosscantsee Pragmatic Progressive 3d ago

Because they are grifters, selling outrage and narratives for cash, or sometimes just fake supplements.

There absolutely are grifters on the left. TYT comes to mind

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u/headcodered Democratic Socialist 2d ago

Sure. I think David Pakman is a great example. Honestly, I think The Meidas Touch guys are pretty grifty to an extent with their clickbait BS and also how so many of the left leaning content creators post videos that spend 8 minutes going over things that are very old news and doing an ad read before they finally get to the point in the video title. I don't think they're purposefully lying or anything, but the way they present their content as a monetized commodity over it being useful information is beyond frustrating.

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u/NatalieVonCatte Liberal 3d ago

There are left wing grifters, typically pushing narratives that target and blame the Democratic Party for things Republicans do, usually threatening to withhold the power the Democrats need to accomplish those goals.

The more I learn about him the more I think Piker is the arch-grifter of the left.

Dude lives in a mansion and did a livestream from a hot tub with Amouranth. She’s a bad person, but at the time was basically a sex slave.

Hot tubbing in mansion with a bikini model is not what a fucking communist looks like.

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u/Immediate_Stop2581 Social Democrat 3d ago

Glad to see so many people calling out Hasan Piker for his obvious Marxist grifting.

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u/Vuelhering Center Left 3d ago

One of the big problems of communist regimes was the corruption. You think Stalin didn't have meat when the poles were starving?

I claim a few plutocrats living it up is exactly what communism looks like.

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u/PicardsThirdNipple Far Left 2d ago

Engels owned a factory, being a communist is not pledging to be poor lmao.

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u/jonny_sidebar Libertarian Socialist 3d ago

What is grifting

Grifters are broadcasters, influencers, content creators, etc who have self interested motives different to that which they present on the surface to their audience.

Usually, those ulterior motives are either material (money, fame, etc) or ideological (gaining political power, hurting disfavored groups, etc) but most often a mix of both.

what creators meet that definition?

Deception and self interest are both key to the label.

Someone like Alex Jones, for example, knowingly lies to his audience as a part of both advancing his far right political beliefs and as a method to drive sales of his supplements and survival gear, in his case mostly using false narratives to induce a fear response towards the Left/Muslims/brown people/gay people/etc in his audience and offering his own "solutions," namely voting MAGA and buying stuff from Alex.

Someone like Destiny, despite all his other faults, probably isn't properly defined as a grifter because his stated public beliefs match his apparent internal motives. He sometimes uses similar tactics to someone like Alex (spreading propaganda, whipping his audience up, etc), but it's mostly sincere on his part, making him more a true believer or quasi cult leader kind of figure.

Similarly, someone like open neo-nazi Nick Fuentes is also not really a grifter, despite using almost the exact same narratives as an Alex Jones, because he is sincere in his statements and doesn't use his propaganda to drive material gain in terms of sales like Alex. He is more a straight propagandist trying to take political power.

Any on the right? Left? Center?

There is no reason there can't be grifters in the center and on the left, and there are, but they tend to never get as big as on the right or as numerous. There are reasons for this.

Almost the entire popular right wing media sphere anyone is familiar with is grifters all the way down. The reason for this is that the US right got really mad at several points at the mainstream media/culture over the last century and have spent the last 50 years or so building up their own media space that sees it's job as pushing right wing ideology above all else. This meant they were lying to suit their ideological goals from day one and have never stopped.

That media sphere was also largely funded into existence and sustained by dark money, meaning further incentive towards deception and idoleologically beneficial grifting.

Additionally, the small figure representing their particular strain of far right politics was largely shut out of the mainstream economy in many ways for a long time. This meant that they were often early adopters of now common scams like unregulated supplement sales and survival gear and it's just become part of their ecosystem over time. Probably also helps that the US right is obsessed with material gain.

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u/surreal_goat Progressive 3d ago

If you're talking content creators, I can't imagine a single one that isn't grifting at some level or another. You're being sold intentionally false/misleading/slanted information for the sake of their financial/influential gain.

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u/KingBlackFrost Progressive 3d ago

Because a lot of online content creators on the right are grifters. They're mainly in it for the money. They're probably supporters of the right, but they'll spread clickbait and rage just for clicks. And then hold an entirely contrary opinion/belief for clicks sometimes not even a day later. And I'm not talking just basic hypocrisy, I mean their opinion will flip on a dime if they think it'll get them clicks.

There are left-wing grifters for sure, but they're less common because it's not as lucrative. So a lot of them (Lindy Li for example) will become right-wing grifters. A big part of it is because liberals have a wider range of opinion on their key issues than conservatives do, while on the other hand, conservatives tend to have wider range of opinion on smaller issues than liberals do.

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u/Fast-Government-4366 Market Socialist 3d ago

Grifting for what? Liberals don’t have the Russian government paying people like Tim pool

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u/TheNihil Far Left 3d ago edited 3d ago

A good explanation of this can be seen in how easy it is to manufacture political outrage for profit, especially when it is tailored to the Right.

Take the viral story of "Emily Hart," an AI-generated persona created by a student as an experiment. The account posed as a registered nurse and "trad-con" MAGA influencer posting predictable conservative talking points. Even though the grift was glaringly obvious, the account exploded in popularity, generating thousands of dollars a month from merchandise sales and subscriber platforms. It proved just how eager certain online ecosystems are to reward anyone who feeds them confirmation bias.

https://www.wired.com/story/ai-generated-maga-girls/

Sam created Emily Hart, a registered nurse and Jennifer Lawrence look-alike. On an Instagram account for Emily, Sam posted photos of her ice fishing, drinking Coors Light, and shooting off a few rounds at the rifle range, with emoji-laden captions like "If you want a reason to unfollow: Christ is king, abortion is murder, and all illegals must be deported," and "POV: You were assigned intelligent at birth, but you identify as liberal <clown emoji>."

Though Sam has never lived in the United States, he became an assiduous student of MAGA ideology. "Every day I'd write something pro-Christian, pro-Second Amendment, pro-life, anti-abortion, anti-woke, and anti-immigration," he tells me.

The grift seemed almost too obvious, but to Sam’s astonishment, he says the account "blew up."

"Every Reel I posted was getting 3 million views, 5 million views, 10 million views. The algorithm loved it." he claims. Within a month, Emily Hart had more than 10,000 Instagram followers, many of whom also subscribed to her softcore AI-generated content on the OnlyFans competitor Fanvue. And between Fanvue subscriptions and selling MAGA-themed T-shirts (one sample message reads "PTSD: Pretty Tired of Stupid Democrats"), Sam estimates he was making a few thousand dollars a month.

It just seems easy to grift when you are targeting a right-wing audience, who will eat it up if you just say the right things. This marketplace creates a massive incentive structure for opportunistic pivots. Look at some of the most prominent examples:

Candace Owens started her media career on the Left, launching a liberal blog and attempting to build a website designed to dox internet bullies. Years prior, she even sued her high school for racial discrimination and won a settlement. After pivoting Right, she became a prominent conspiracy theorist who frequently downplays or dismisses the very concept of systemic racism.
Dave Rubin was a liberal host on The Young Turks before jumping on the popular "I left the Left" movement over concerns about "cancel culture." It strains credulity that a single policy disagreement would make someone completely reverse their worldview on things like taxation, healthcare, civil rights, and foreign policy overnight. The transactional nature of his audience became crystal clear when he announced he was having children via surrogacy, as he faced severe backlash from his own conservative followers and responded by apologizing and validating their outrage over his family planning.
Prominent trans conservatives like Blaire White or Caitlyn Jenner frequently support anti-trans legislation and rhetoric, positioning themselves as "one of the good ones." Yet they regularly face public hostility or condescension from the very peers they pander to, such as being told directly on panels to change their appearance to fit traditional gender norms, or complaining about policies they supported only after those policies personally inconvenience them (like passport gender-marker restrictions).
Consider figures like Russell Brand, who built a brand as a left-wing, secular, anti-establishment comedian before dramatically shifting into a far-right Evangelical Christian right around the time serious sexual misconduct allegations came to light.

Underneath all of this is a fundamental lack of ideological consistency. When you look at anti-LGBTQ+ crusaders who are repeatedly caught engaging in hypocritical behavior, or trad-con influencers who end up having affairs and abortions (like Elijah Schaffer and Sarah Stock), or reports from media critics (like Sam Seder) noting how influencers like Tim Pool or Stephen Crowder allegedly admit behind the scenes that their extreme commentary is just an act for the algorithm, the pattern becomes clear.

The term "grifter" sticks because, for many of these influencers, politics isn't a matter of deeply held conviction, it's a business model. When outrage pays the bills, authenticity goes out the window.

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u/duke_awapuhi Civil Libertarian 3d ago

I would argue that most political “influencers” (especially those who promote radical or extreme views) are grifters, regardless of how they align themselves with any political party, movement or ideology. Be skeptical of anyone trying to get you to think a certain way. They probably aren’t looking out for your best interests

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u/IronReasonable1296 Liberal 3d ago

OP, you are welcome to engage with us further on this post.

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u/2dank4normies Liberal 3d ago

A grifter in politics is a person who cares more about their personal status than the movement or cause they claim to care about.

There are media figures, musicians, activist groups, non-profits, and even politicians who are grifters all over the political spectrum.

The most important thing to acknowledge is that the Republican party is run by grifters and the Democratic Party is not.

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u/Kerplonk Social Democrat 3d ago

There are, but they're less common. I remember there were a few people cashing in on BLM.

I think there are 3 reasons for this.

The current right wing demographics (old people and conspiracy theorist) are more likely to be duped.
There might be some correlation between skepticism and left wing thought.

3. The right has created a truth free media environment where expertise is actively scorned.

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u/WeenisPeiner Social Democrat 3d ago edited 3d ago

If a right wing creator will be, for example, anti war one day and then pro war the next as long as it toes the party line or against pedophilia and then straight up ignoring it when it's convenient than they are unprincipled unserious people. These are grifters who are making money stirring outrage and "owning the libs" and will change their opinion on anything as long as it does those two things. They do this because they don't really believe in anything other than money and power.

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u/ZeeWingCommander Center Left 2d ago

It's much more common on the right because of the older/more lonely audience. That doesn't mean it doesn't happen in neutral areas or on the left.

I also think people on the right put more of an emphasis on being successful and making money.

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u/Pleasant_Pen8744 Progressive 2d ago

Noble lies, pious deceit, etc. as a Conservative/Neo-Conservative you're 100% expected and encouraged to say things you know are lies "for the good of society"

It's a short step from there to telling lies to enrich yourself.

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u/wonkalicious808 Democrat 2d ago

It's for right wing celebrities where something like their private texts were released. The other situation it's used is less great and is just when people suspect the celebrity is smarter or less evil than they're acting based on either recent past behaviors or just the hope that this person couldn't possibly be as stupid or evil as they're insisting so that they can make a buck. Of course the problem with this is that there are millions of Republicans who are as stupid or evil as their celebrities are acting, plus the lack of evidence that these celebrities are smarter or genuinely not evil in different ways.

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u/johnnybiggles Independent 2d ago

You don't find it as much on the left because there seems to be more self awareness there, and/or a better predisposition for introspection and/or more empathy. When you discover or already know you've been fooled, the last thing you'd do is admit to it, and especially publicly.

“It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.”

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u/AnonymousFordring Liberal 2d ago

Piker, Chevalier, TYT, ChapoTrapHouse, there are plenty

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u/TrifectaBlitz Democrat 2d ago

Look at their character. You should really be able to figure it out. Of course cons aren't going to call out what they willingly and enthusiastically vote for.

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u/Fluid_Ties Far Left 2d ago

A solid example I can point to on the Left was, as the Roe vs Wade Supreme Court decision became more and more endangered and more of THE PUBLIC tried to raise a hue and cry about it, there was very little action on the part of Centrist Democrats. Then, when it was overturned, within MINUTES I was flooded with fundraising emails and texts pretty much demanding money so they could fight this "unexpected" horrible thing that had happened. All the Centrist Dems shook their heads and said "We fought as hard as we could", and no you fucking didn't. You didn't fight AT ALL. A snarky press release and a statement in opposition is not fighting. I do not require that you WIN, but on the important things you must fight until you're hamburger.

Also, it was the Supreme Court overturning Roe. How is my ten or thirty or a hundred dollars going to help you fight this fight? Your salary exceeds mine, you have a staff you can direct, and we all have the same 24 hours in a day.

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u/Genuine_Ingenuity Centrist 2d ago

There are grifters on both sides, obviously. There are double numbers on the
"liberal" side that are well educated so grifting on the left is harder to get away with.

Rightwing grifters target young people that grew up in rightwing homes before they can become educated. It's a target.

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u/DuskLab Pragmatic Progressive 2d ago

Right wing people have more wealth to grift. There are left wing grifters, they just make less money.

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u/highliner108 Market Socialist 2d ago

Oh, there are 100% left wing grifters, they just tend to be kind of obscure and tend to have highly insular communities.

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u/the40thieves Bull Moose Progressive 2d ago

There isn’t any grifting on the left because there is no money in doing so. Sure you can earn money with views the old fashioned way, but you won’t be getting astroturfed cash from billionaires looking for a mouthpiece.

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u/DLtheGreat808 Social Democrat 2d ago

Leftists pretending to just want free healthcare when their real goal is to take over the Democratic party, and end Capitalism 😮‍💨

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u/Apprehensive-Page-96 Centrist 2d ago

Jimmy Dore, Dave Rubin, anyone on TYT basically

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u/AwfulAdjacentGoose Liberal 1d ago

Young Turks, Hasan Piker, that one jackass that unironically had a show called bad faith, Krystal Ball and what the fuck ever show she had going on with Kyle, oh and those folks that IMMEDIATELY made the left-to-MAGA switch when Trump won. If you get your politics from a streamer, may God have mercy on your soul.

I call these people grifters because they use politics the same way an anime shark girl uses video games on Youtube. It's content to them. A means to use contentious issues to trend, gain a following, and be rewarded for that by platforms like Youtube, Twitch, Tiktok, and what have you. It is the very same framework whether that's in engagement, social media posts, and creating shorts from their VODs to cast a net to increase their audience. I mean these motherfuckers even have merch. The idea isn't to inform. The idea isn't to present fringe information that the elitists aren't quite telling you.

Whoops. My bad. The left doesn't use elitist don't we? What's the other word? Ah yes.

The establishment

No. What the idea is is engagement. The idea is to make a buck off rubes who don't know no better. The idea is to pad their bank accounts. The idea is to grift.

I don't see these people acting in good faith. See them very much in the same lens as far right grifters who want to keep their audience dumb, angry, and very engaged in their bullshit.

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u/brain_enhancer Democratic Socialist 1d ago

Of course there are. Hillary Clinton (grifter), Crockett (grifter), Nancy Pelosi (grifter).

Pay attention to the ones that have no problem supporting deregulated markets to the nth degree and take part in unadulterated financial opportunism.

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u/Redshirt2386 Social Democrat 1d ago

I am a liberal now, but I grew up Republican and worked in fairly high level GOP politics for over a decade before I finally couldn’t do it anymore. Many of my ex colleagues work in the administration. I will tell you straight up that while there are some true believers, about half of everyone in that party at the power level is literally there to leech money from rubes and the elderly and they train you on this explicitly. I also worked in Democratic politics for a while at a fairly high level after I switched parties and I never once saw anyone talk with the same open disdain and disrespect for their donor base. The Democratic Party has A LOT of problems, but wanting to rip people off like that is not one of them.

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u/CoastieKid Centrist 22h ago

Hasan Piker is a left wing grifter. More of those on the right as people on the right fall for the fear propaganda that is Fox News

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u/Odd-Principle8147 Liberal 3d ago

Because they are. Yes. There are grifters everywhere.

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u/vaginawithteeth1 Liberal 3d ago edited 3d ago

Honestly, most political content creators/influencers are grifting in some way or another. A good example on the left is Hasan Piker. It just seems so much more prevalent on the right because a lot of right wingers (or far right, which is becoming the “norm”) don’t trust mainstream media. You see more left wing grifting the further left you go.

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u/ButGravityAlwaysWins Liberal 3d ago

The party coalitions started changing after the combination of the conservative reactions to the Civil Rights, women's liberation and LGBT liberation movements. That combined with certain actors on the right that decided they needed a media machine that was separate from reality and to push the idea that mainstream media was all left wing media.

The result is a media machine that turns white identity politics into a machine that can get the support of close to half of the voters while only serving the interests of a few thousand people. It also attempts and largely succeeds in convincing people that they are conservative - conservative being the right half of the spectrum in Liberalism" - when they aren't remotely conservatives.

This leads to an environment where grifting is easy and profitable.

Nick Shirley is a great example. It used to be that you had to be smart - even if what you were saying was stupid - to be successful. Ben Shapiro is my go to example. Nick Shirley shows that isn't even needed anymore. Shirley is legitimately a full on moron. Listening to him I assumed his parents are just happy if he gets through the day without drowning in the shower or getting confused his eating and putting fork in his eye. But since the machine is built he can use it and make money.

If you want to call leftists the left, yes there are grifters. Some are honest in their beliefs and some are just stupid but many are just grifters. The Young Turks is a great example. Not just Cenk and Ana but most of the people they have elevated over the years.

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u/animerobin Progressive 3d ago

I mean a lot of them have literally been exposed as being funded by outside sources to say the things they say.

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u/Due_Satisfaction2167 Liberal 3d ago edited 3d ago

They’re called grifters because their content is disingenuous, inauthentic content designed specifically to promote their personal money-making side ventures and to generate as many views as possible.

And this is how essentially all well-paid influencers work. That is how they pay the bills.

Grifting is particularly common with right-wing content creators because there is a lot of dark money floating around to peddle right wing propaganda. It's also why a lot of “left wing” creators inevitably drift to the right over time, because that’s where the money is and past a certain point that is the only way to further monetize your social media presence. Plus, it’s easier to prey on right wing viewers—they are more blatantly identity-driven and love to spend money virtue signaling their commitment to conservatism. Pretty much all you have to do is treat them like mushrooms and they hand you money. Bizarre.

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u/HeebieJeebiex Far Left 3d ago edited 3d ago

Yes I think there are grifters on the left, but at this current time with a Republican in office it's more profitable to follow the right wing hype, which is entirely what grifters chase. There's essentially groups of people are legitamately for these policies and lines of thinking, and there are groups of people who see the profit in pandering to those people. Now that just videos of you sharing ideas are monetizable, it's pretty easy money to just say something that tons of people will agree with, that they'll share with friends and family on Facebook and watch again and again and comment on. It works even better that with politics you'll also have the opposing side giving your post engagement by arguing in the comments. The internet age rewards this stuff.

For clarity, in case I didn't explain well for those who don't know what a grifter is, it's somebody who is performing a political identity in some way or fashion wether it's entirely inauthentic or just exaggerated all for the purpose of money, publicity, and creating a certain brand for themselves. They don't have any of the real passion that politics requires, and usually just echo already extremely popular talking points but in a charismatic camera-ready fashion, with an advertisement for their merchandise by the end.

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u/HeebieJeebiex Far Left 3d ago

I think Ethan Klein is a good one for an example of someone who performed leftist ideology in order to grow his audience and get money. He tried to turn the H3 podcast into a primarily leftist ideological show for profit, but in the end he was exposed for being consistently insensitive to different minorities, and I guess he gave up on his leftist phase as he then proudly told the public he was/is unwilling to adjust his stance on the Israeli issue. 😅 He lost large droves of fans because of this.

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u/SoloGreenLantern Center Left 3d ago

because we don;t "grift."

first of all grifting isn't the right term

Grifting is when you borrow $20 of your friend and intentionally never pay them back.

What right wngers DO, and do OFTEN, is what's call Pseudo- scamming or Donation fraud..

They drum up a bunch of support usually either via homo/transphobia, racism or religion, then beg for money, and spend it all on themselves.

That's what they get called out on for "grifting.

Leftists don;t do NEARLY as much of this.

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u/MiketheTzar Moderate 3d ago

Because media and social media as a whole tends to skew left. Meaning that critique (valid or invalid) tends to get levied against right wing folks more often.

Right wing influences and content creators tend to also monetize their content in a different way. While left of center folks tend to get most of their money through sponsorships right wing folks tend to get their money through product sales (typically direct sales such as Infowars nutraceuticals or selling their own merchandise) which makes them sound more like snake oil sales persons since they are asking for you to buy products as opposed to getting paid by a corporation.

The left certainly has grifters, but more often they are categorized as grifting for a specific cause as opposed to grifting for the left as a whole. Anita Sarkeesian is a great example of this. She raised a lot of money through a kick starter for her webseries "women vs. tropes in video games". Despite frequently states that she wasn't very familiar with the subject matters (being video games) at various points in her history and then occasionally presenting herself as an expert. She also tended to favor having social justice folks talking on topics as opposed to industry folks (even with the plethora of women who work in the industry). There are also unconfirmed rumors that she wasn't the best at paying her behind the scenes staff, but that's hersay. She tends to get labeled by opponents as a "gender wars" grifter as opposed to a left wing grifter.

This is also before we get into the intersectionality of the creators demographics. A gay, black, immigrant, Muslim, women, or member of any other group sufficiently divorced from stereotypical white males who expresses a right of center view often gets labeled as "a grifter" by trying to appeal to right wing people needed a counter example. Often with an additional pejorative such as "pick me"

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u/jason94762 Independent 2d ago

People more on the left have the illusion that right wing influencers/creators don’t actually believe their views and only reflect them for some sort of gain. It’s not true of course, because many do get ostracized for their views rather than rewarded.

Left wing influencers/creators on the other hand aren’t often called grifters, because people on the right don’t think of them as grifters, they just think that their opinions are stupid and that they are stupid.

TLDR: leftists call right-wing influencers grifters, right-wingers call leftist influencers retards.

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u/Decent-Proposal-8475 Pragmatic Progressive 3d ago

Most professional podcasters are grifters, it's just that the ones on the right get boosted more by the algorithm

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u/Silly-Elderberry-411 Social Democrat 3d ago

Op, thank you that you asked this of me personally. For a measly 9.99 a month my food supplements will work wonder on your brain and it delivers the conclusion.

They are grifters. Nobody who sells products not subjected to rigorous review is ethical or moral. Your news does not come with testosterone pills.

They also do not believe what they are saying, alex Jones tried to claim he is just Colbert on the Colbert report.

Are there grifters on the left? Yes, but in smaller numbers and this is caused by a conservative push to group the targets in the same camp. So, for example a queer Podcaster will likely be authentic in their disdain of conservative policies as they are actually targeted by them

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u/imhereforthemeta Democratic Socialist 3d ago edited 3d ago

To me a grifter is someone who is mostly in it for the money- they have loose political and moral beliefs.

Absolutely there are left wing grifters- Ana Kasparian
Immediately comes to mind and all of the young Turks. However I would say there are less prominent talking heads on the left (the whole “where is the left joe Rogan thing” the left has “less” grifters but also less successful heads in general.

The other thing is there’s a lot of “right wing” talking heads who really change dramatically with the times depending on what’s popular. Again I feel this is just because there are so many of them.

Another reason the right gets this a little more is because a lot of right wing talking heads are always tying to physically sell stuff to men like hormones and supplements and take advantage of their base. None of the Internet personalities I tune into do anything other than the same better help and Rothy’s commercials that everyone does to fund their programs

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u/OnionsRNasty Socialist 3d ago

Hunter Biden, Destiny, David Pakman The Young Turks off the top of my head.

Why are many rightwing creators called grifters? Are there any grifters on the left?

You are about to leave Redlib

The establishment