Grifters of the Right

A can-do attitude is useful in life, but con artists will be very interested in telling you what you want to hear

"Summer Grifter" by zcopley is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has staked out a role as a right-wing culture warrior in the fight against left-wing “wokeness” as he mulls a possible run against US President Joe Biden next year. But, what exactly does “woke” mean? DeSantis’ team gave their answer in a Florida court in December. The politician’s attorney Ryan Newman defined the term as “the belief there are systemic injustices in American society and the need to address them.”

The answer led to a lot of jokes on the internet. It seems fairly obvious to the vast majority of the population that a straight, white, able-bodied, middle-class boy with an expensive education and a trust fund might have more opportunities to succeed in life than a black, working-class disabled lesbian born into a broken home on the wrong side of the tracks. Maybe, just maybe, investing in decent state education and a welfare state might help give the under-privileged a fighting chance?

Although Newman’s answer is clearly ridiculous, we can see a glimmer of something more interesting if we turn around his formulation. What is the opposite of believing in systemic injustices? I would suggest it is a can-do spirit that encompasses entrepreneurialism and optimism.

Entrepreneurial optimism is actually a very healthy attitude. It can lead to people developing good habits, working hard their whole lives and refusing to get disheartened by failures or setbacks. On the other hand, believing that the deck is stacked against you can lead to a defeatist attitude. There is plenty of evidence to support having a “growth mindset” as a formula for success. Its absence can hold back progressive organizations.

I suspect that if we could take 100 people with an entrepreneurial and optimistic attitude and compare their lives with 100 people with a defeatist attitute, we would probably find that on average the former group had more success in life. It is important to look at large numbers of people as the correlation might not hold so well for individuals. Sam Bankman-Fried is as entrepreneurial and optimistic as anyone on the planet and is facing a possible prison sentence of up to 115 years. Meanwhile, it would be hard to find anyone more pessimistic or defeatist than Noam Chomsky. Perhaps surprisingly, he is a millionaire.

Sadly, although encouraging people to have a can-do attitude is generally positive, it also has a dark side. Grifters love to tell people what they want to hear. People who hate hearing about systemic injustices and instead want to learn how to win are prime targets for con artists. It is no surprise that right-wing media draws grifters the way that catnip attracts cats.

Professional conspiracy theorist Alex Jones of InfoWars has for years made lots of money selling supplements to fight completely imaginary fungal epidemics. Mehmet Cengiz Öz (known as Dr Oz) went from promoting health misinformation on Fox News to an unsuccessful run for the Senate as a Republican. And Republican candidate George Santos unexpectedly won a race for Congress despite lying about pretty much everything. The Brazilian authorities are investigating him for fraud.

Donald Trump paved the way for grifters entering populist right-wing politics in 2015-16. Before that, he had specialized in playing a successful businessman on television from 2004 to 2015. His real business was scamming people with can-do attitudes, who thought he epitomized success. Trump University, which ran from 2005 to 2010, was the prime example. It offered seminars on real estate and wealth creation without any credentials. Trump settled three lawsuits relating to the scam for $25m after unexpectedly being elected US President in 2016.

The left isn’t immune from this - Bankman-Fried was the very public face of effective altruism while scamming customers with get-rich quick crypto scams. However, he later admitted giving just as much money to the Republicans in dark money as he was publicly donating to the Democrats. He also said that “a lot” of his ethical posturing consisted of a front. “I feel bad for those who get fucked by it… by this dumb game we woke Westerners play where we say all the right shibboleths and so everyone likes us” [I corrected the grammar and spelling of his written answer].

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, grifters will always tell you to stop reading the news and stop listening to experts. It’s an obvious move if you want to sell a product that sounds better than it really is. If anyone ever tries to sell you anti-vaccine narratives, for example, it is worth checking if they sell unproven dietary supplements on their website. For grifters, there’s no upside in telling people to get vaccinated.

If you do listen to experts, you will often find out that real advice is much more straightforward and boring than the grifters would have you believe. Are you worried about your health? Why not practice a sport or physical activity you enjoy several times a week? And complement it with a little strength training? And walk at least a mile or two every day?

Also, wouldn’t it be a good idea to eat more vegetables, avoid junk food and research how your ancestors used to eat? Why not stay hydrated? And drink alcohol in moderation, stop smoking (or never start) and avoid illegal drugs? Wouldn’t it be a good idea to go to bed early once in a while? Also, in the immortal words of strength coach Dan John, wear your seatbelt!

Young heterosexual men who are worried about their love life can do much better than taking advice from misogynist grifters like Andrew Tate. By all means go to the gym, but why not learn to dance too? Next time you go shopping, take your sister or a female friend and let them pick out clothes for you. Ask them what you should do with your hair and don’t argue back if their answer makes you uncomfortable.

If you want to go deeper, avoid getting addicted to dirty movies on the internet. Instead, volunteer for a food bank and also learn to cook a handful of nourishing meals. Read a good book or three. Ask elderly relatives about their lives and learn to listen deeply to their answers. While you are working on yourself, you might be surprised to find attractive people looking you up and down more than they did before.

Meanwhile, if you are worried about being poor, investing in your education is always going to be a better bet than crypto schemes. Research from the US shows that men with university degrees on average earn $900,000 more over a lifetime than men who just finished high school. The figure is $630,000 for women.

While I am not regulated to give investment advice, the basics beyond investing in education tend to be very simple: Stay out of debt, except a mortgage; buy a modest home and pay off the mortgage as quickly as possible; try to put a little money aside every month; and invest in index funds over many decades in order to enjoy the benefits of compound growth. If that is all too boring for you, think about founding or joining a startup so you can ride an exponential wave if your project is successful.

Finally, it is worth being aware that a can-do attitude in the face of injustice can only take you so far. Research shows that countries with publicly funded health services tend to have higher longevity rates than those without one. Buying supplements on the internet will never be enough to overcome the gap, even though people who see the world as consisting of atomized individuals might struggle with the need for collective action.

Instead of spending your hard-earned cash on supplements and crypto seminars, why not commit to voting for non-populist parties that promise to build and defend a welfare state without ruining capitalism at the same time? A state-run healthcare system might save your life when you are older, or maybe the life of one of your loved ones. Also, if you don’t have a degree yourself, voting for parties that support state education will help improve your kids’ chances of becoming first-generation professionals after learning about systemic injustices at university. The comments are open. See you next week!

Further Reading

The Confidence Game by Maria Konnikova

Sharpen Your Axe is a project to develop a community who want to think critically about the media, conspiracy theories and current affairs without getting conned by gurus selling fringe views. Please subscribe to get this content in your inbox every week. Shares on social media are appreciated!

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