"Bad faith." Fans of this clip will enjoy the podcast we recorded last night. That episode does the work of explaining what's really going on here
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I don't consider it a grift, because that implies they're cheating or scamming. What they're doing is standard operating procedure, what anyone in that structure would do. To call out "grifting" is like singling out Watergate as the only scandal, as if everything else wasn't
Nothing these actors say ever means anything. Only their actions, observed post hoc, provide any clue to understanding their process, as you've noted. Not only can they tailor a message to micro-constituencies, but the message is meaningless beyond its immediate emotional impact
