Maajid Nawaz

Classical Mechanic said:
Extremist to progressive to fringe conspiracy nut. Not the most surprising arc when you think about it.
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Seems to happen more than I used to think. The number of right-wing media types that have some Marxist/leftist background is quite surprising. Tend to see it in those that want racial change and when Marxism (leftist politics as well) hasn't worked out, they pivot to the far right.

On top of that you then have the grifters and even some of those grifters can eventually buy into it.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
I left-wing grifting even a thing?
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I was thinking about this too. All the people I can think of who are known as left wing have real jobs as actors and musicians and wotnot.

But there are a bunch of people whose entire job seems to be to go around talking about right wing stuff.

are there any left wing equivalents of people like Ben Shapiro?
 
Classical Mechanic said:
Extremist to progressive to fringe conspiracy nut. Not the most surprising arc when you think about it.
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Yeah, people talk about the political spectrum as a straight line with the extremes at either end, but really it’s more of a circle where the two extremes join up at the point of anarchy, and before that there’s a lot of overlapping views from folks on either fringe. It requires some mental gymnastics to switch sides, but the path is there.
 
Tarrou said:
I was thinking about this too. All the people I can think of who are known as left wing have real jobs as actors and musicians and wotnot.

But there are a bunch of people whose entire job seems to be to go around talking about right wing stuff.

are there any left wing equivalents of people like Ben Shapiro?
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I think perhaps the likes Max Blumenthal, Aaron Mate* and Rania Khalek might qualify. Although not sure if they really qualify as left, and in any case they’ve nowhere near the reach or profile that the right-wing equivalents do.

Russia-gate also threw up a load of shameless anti-Trump grifters whose names I’ve happily forgotten now.

*(Edit): on second thoughts it’s probably a bit unfair to lump him in with the other two.
 
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Pogue Mahone said:
I left-wing grifting even a thing?
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I asked a mate something along these lines once, who I wouldn’t call right wing but is partial to Jordan Peterson, Joe Rogan and is somewhat anti-establishment why this seems to be the case and he said that almost all media is left wing grifting (music, cinema, video games, tv shows) and so right wing views need to be searched for a little more and these right wing grifters fill a niche. Not so sure as these grifters are far more extreme and polarised (and of course virulent) than anything you’d find in the aforementioned media. Also they focus entirely on the political, when you obviously don’t watch a movie or play a game because you need an injection of theoretical leftist world views.
 
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Surprise, surprise. He's running out of people to swindle in the UK.
 
He takes on the extremist or radical wing of whatever power structure he finds himself embedded in. Whether that be religious, political or governmental. If he ever started supporting a football team, he'd probably end up a hooligan.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
I left-wing grifting even a thing?
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Jimmy Dore before his tucker carlson lovefest days? His whole shtick was "nothing can be changed so just be mad at democrats". Now he's following down the Rubin model.

I'm not the biggest fan of TYT any more and Secular Talk, but those folks at least took anger and created Justice Democrats. Pre-Right Wing Grifter Jimmy was "pay me money to tell you to be angry" and thats it.
 
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Russell Brand?

 
Dante said:
He takes on the extremist or radical wing of whatever power structure he finds himself embedded in. Whether that be religious, political or governmental. If he ever started supporting a football team, he'd probably end up a hooligan.
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Is he a Millwall supporter? :D
 
Kopral Jono said:
Right now I'm on my lunch break going through my Twitter feed and a recent tweet from Nawaz spouting election fraud nonsense popped up. Him being not right in the head is a given at this point, but more insidiously I think he's grifting hard for that big money far-right media gig in America -- otherwise why would a moderately respected British political pundit go so far down each and every America-centric conspiracy rabbit holes, losing all credibility in the process, if it isn't for possible financial gains stateside. This whole thing makes even more sense when you consider that his wife is American.
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Guy has been funded by the right the whole time, Quillam was a big scam paid by shadow money. Even his family has said so from the start.
 
On left-wing grifting:
You could say Chapo is a grift, given the insane money they get for doing almost nothing, but I think they've only ever asked for money a handful of times, when they were starting out over 5 years ago, and never again (tbf they didn't need to).
Also they don't report/delete when their content gets pirated, so rather than a grift, it's more that people are throwing money at them.

Sanders/AOC/etc as a grift? Could be a nice debate! I'm not sure. Same with that party as a whole, but they deliver for their big donors.
 
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berbatrick said:
On left-wing grifting:
You could say Chapo is a grift, given the insane money they get for doing almost nothing, but I think they've only ever asked for money a handful of times, when they were starting out over 5 years ago, and never again (tbf they didn't need to).
Also they don't report/delete when their content gets pirated, so rather than a grift, it's more that people are throwing money at them.

Sanders/AOC/etc as a grift? Could be a nice debate! I'm not sure. Same with that party as a whole.
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It's a popular word at the moment, but for me being a grifter means being a scammer and pretender. So e.g. Chapo would be grifters if they didn't actually hold the beliefs they say they do. If they're sincere but also doing all they can to cash in then you could say a lot of stuff about that, and not all positive, but it's not a grift.
 
DJ Jeff said:
Hasan Piker, Vaush, Destiny, Chapo Trap House I guess if being a commentator(s) who makes a lot of money off being a commentator is the thing
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actually the Lincoln Project was the definition of grifting off left wing people but since I think the term is meant more to impugn the views of your opposite side as insincere/profit based, and TLP were just opportunist liberals willing to cross over to dem support once Trump got into GOP, I don't think anyone would call them grifters except right wing people, same as Tucker Carlson/Chapo/BLM leaders who made lots of money etc won't be called grifter unless its by the opposite side
 
DJ Jeff said:
actually the Lincoln Project was the definition of grifting off left wing people but since I think the term is meant more to impugn the views of your opposite side as insincere/profit based, and TLP were just opportunist liberals willing to cross over to dem support once Trump got into GOP, I don't think anyone would call them grifters except right wing people, same as Tucker Carlson/Chapo/BLM leaders who made lots of money etc won't be called grifter unless its by the opposite side
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I'd definitely call Kendhi a grifter. He charges mind blowing fees for talks yet refuses to engage in discussion with critics even if its a crowdfunding event where the money goes to a charitable cause. Thinking about coleman hughes invitation to debate here where the 20.000 dollars would have gone to children in Kenya, but he didnt respond.
 
Gehrman said:
I'd definitely call Kendhi a grifter. He charges mind blowing fees for talks yet refuses to engage in discussion with critics even if its a crowdfunding event where the money goes to a charitable cause. Thinking about coleman hughes invitation to debate here where the 20.000 dollars would have gone to children in Kenya, but he didnt respond.
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O yeah forgot that guy because he's so laughable as to be a comedy figure. You could add Robin DiAngelo and the like, the after dinner racespeaker type who emerged post summer 2020 who made absolute fortunes off the guilt of rich white people who watch too much news
 
DJ Jeff said:
O yeah forgot that guy because he's so laughable as to be a comedy figure. You could add Robin DiAngelo and the like, the after dinner racespeaker type who emerged post summer 2020 who made absolute fortunes off the guilt of rich white people who watch too much news
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Kendhi used to believe that white people were literally aliens as a young man. I will give him the benefit of doubt and presume he was smoking a serious amount of weed at the time. He called white parents adopting a black child white colonianism. Robin is just a horror story. She had a out of body experience when she was 34 when she realised she was white.
 
DJ Jeff said:
Hasan Piker, Vaush, Destiny, Chapo Trap House I guess if being a commentator(s) who makes a lot of money off being a commentator is the thing
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Greenwald has been doing it for much of the past decade as well, even more so recently now that he's a regular on Tucker Carlson's show.
 
“I can think of several historical examples in which capitalism inspired anti-racism” yeah sure dude. groundbreaking stuff from coleman.
 
entropy said:
“I can think of several historical examples in which capitalism inspired anti-racism” yeah sure dude. groundbreaking stuff from coleman.
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I wonder how anti-capitalist Kendhi really is considering the fortune he's making off it with barely any effort at all.
 
Gehrman said:
I wonder how anti-capitalist Kendhi really is considering the fortune he's making off it with barely any effort at all.
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Feels relevant.

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nimic said:
Feels relevant.

whnuvoh4od031.jpg
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He charges 20.000 dollars an hour to share his "wisdom". And refuses to debate with critics even if all the money goes to charity. I think he's a grifter, but a intellectual lightweight.
 
How to be an anti-racist is a really small book which most people don’t care about. It’s his first book that has him making all this money.
 
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