1/ There's so much grift these days. I'm defining "grift" not as blatant fraud, but as non-virtuous, non euvoluntary trade, where one side definitely benefits and the other is left satisfied, in the sense that they THINK they have acquired something of value, but haven't.
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6/ There's always been fraud. There's always been grift...but it seems like there's so much of it now. Not just the ebook grifters, but the first batch of lawyers who preyed on Kyle Rittenhouse and his supporters, the Popehat-adjacent porn lawyer who cut an illegal side deal
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7/ ...with his employer's rival (pocketing a bribe) and then generated a fictitious sexual harassment complain, the list just goes on. Corey Doctorow and the whole self-promote Boing Boing crew. It's everywhere you look.
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8/ Sociopaths seem to prey on the geeks and MOPS faster and harder than ever beforehttps://meaningness.com/geeks-mops-sociopaths …
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9/ I think there's a lot more of it now than there was before. Let's hop back to 1980. There were low value / non-euvoluntary grifts. Boiler room stock selling operations, mediocre ambulance chaser attorneys, guys selling timeshares.
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10/ ...but they weren't EVERYWHERE. They didn't IMMEDIATELY infest every single hobby, every single social movement. I think the difference is that the internet has reduced the friction on things. To set up a grift in 1980 (let's say, to sell timeshares, or a guide to women)
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11/ You'd probably need to rent an office, buy a few tables and chairs, get AT&T to come out and install a dozen phone lines and a PBX, buy a mailing list from some vendor, take out an ad in the newspaper to hire some bodies... it's complicated, takes time, and costs a bit of $
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12/ ...but in the current year, you don't need ANY of that. You just start with a keyboard, tweeting and blogging your brand. I think the barrier to entry to grifting is so much lower than it ever was before...and when cost falls, supply increases.
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