The Grift Economy

How Nihilists Turned Expertise into the Enemy

Duluth, Georgia — October 23, 2024: An American conservative political commentator, Benny Johnson speaks at Donald Trump's election rally at the Gas South Arena in Duluth, Georgia.

I need to tell you something that should be obvious but apparently isn’t: a good third of this country now lives in a reality constructed entirely by bullshit artists who want to sell them survival gear and supplements.

Let me be specific about what I mean. Take Benny Johnson—one of the leading “conservative” influencers with millions of followers across social media platforms. His track record is publicly documented: serial plagiarist fired from BuzzFeed, conspiracy theorist suspended from multiple outlets, abusive manager who made women cry, and most recently, a Russian asset who took nearly $10 million in foreign money to produce propaganda videos.

All of this is on Wikipedia. All of it is documented in mainstream reporting. None of it is hidden or disputed.

Yet his audience doesn’t care. They don’t see his record as disqualifying—they see it as credentials. Because in the grift economy, being a proven liar isn’t a bug, it’s a feature.

This isn’t an accident. It’s a business model.

The grift economy operates on a simple principle: keep people afraid so they keep coming back for more. Alex Jones sells brain pills and survival gear while screaming about globalist conspiracies. Tucker Carlson hawks frozen meals while warning about demographic replacement. Benny Johnson takes Russian money while claiming to defend American values.

The product isn’t information—it’s permission. Permission to abandon civic responsibility. Permission to hate without justification. Permission to feel victimized while supporting actual victimizers. Permission to call yourself a patriot while taking money from foreign adversaries.

But here’s the most insidious part: they’ve successfully inverted all moral categories. The people who actually study climate science are “alarmists.” The people tracking democratic erosion are “hysterics.” The people documenting fascist tactics are “extremists.” The people who give a shit about our children’s future are “enemies of the people.”

Meanwhile, the guy selling you gold coins and telling you to stock up on canned goods because the deep state is coming—he’s the voice of reason. The Russian asset manufacturing outrage for clicks—he’s the truth-teller. The serial plagiarist screaming about media bias—he’s the honest journalist.

This moral inversion isn’t confusion. It’s strategy.

Because the grift economy can’t survive actual expertise. Can’t profit from chaos if people maintain the capacity for rational assessment. Can’t sell fear to people who understand reality.

So expertise itself had to become the enemy. Not because experts are always right—they’re not—but because the very concept of expertise threatens the business model. If some people actually know more about climate science than others, if some people have studied authoritarianism more deeply than others, if some people understand economics better than others—then the grift loses its power.

The beautiful simplicity of the con is that it makes the marks feel smart for being deceived. They get to feel like insiders while being systematically misinformed. They get to feel morally superior while supporting immoral causes. They get to feel like rebels while serving power.

The audience knows, at some level, that it’s bullshit. But they’re buying something else: the emotional satisfaction of righteous anger without the complexity of understanding what they’re angry about. The performance of being informed without the burden of actual information. The comfort of simple answers to complex problems.

Benny Johnson gives them permission to hate the people they already wanted to hate while providing just enough pseudo-intellectual veneer to make that hatred feel justified. The fact that he’s a fraud isn’t disqualifying—it’s reassuring. It signals that truth doesn’t matter, only tribal loyalty.

This is why pointing out the contradictions, the lies, the grift doesn’t work. You’re assuming they care about intellectual consistency when what they actually care about is having their existing beliefs validated by someone who claims authority.

They know Tucker Carlson is a trust fund baby playing populist. They know Trump is a failed businessman who’s never worked a day in his life. They know Alex Jones is selling them overpriced vitamins. They know it’s all performance.

That’s precisely why it works.

In a world where they feel powerless, being in on the con makes them feel powerful. Being part of the inside joke makes them feel smart. Knowing it’s all kayfabe but playing along anyway makes them feel sophisticated.

The con isn’t happening to them. They’re participating in it. They’re co-conspirators, not victims.

This is the hardest truth for decent people to accept: these aren’t confused souls who need patient explanation. These aren’t victims of sophisticated propaganda who just need better facts. These are willing participants in a system that profits from chaos while making them feel virtuous about supporting it.

The grift economy has weaponized nihilism itself. Since nothing matters, since truth is whatever you want it to be, since all authority is corrupt anyway—why not get rich off the collapse? Why not profit from the chaos you’re helping to create?

The heroes of this “movement”—though “racket” is more accurate—fully understand that they’re full of shit. But they’re nihilists who don’t care. They’ve discovered that there’s more money in manufacturing outrage than in providing actual information. More profit in selling fear than in promoting understanding. More power in exploiting ignorance than in fostering education.

And they’ve built an entire ecosystem around this insight. A parallel economy where being wrong is profitable, where expertise is suspicious, where complexity is weakness, where the biggest liars become the most trusted voices.

The business model requires keeping people terrified and confused because calm, informed people don’t buy survival gear or click on conspiracy content. Peaceful, educated people don’t donate to stop the imaginary threat of the week. Rational citizens don’t need to be saved from the manufactured crisis of the month.

So the grift economy needs crisis. Needs chaos. Needs conflict. Needs to keep people in a constant state of fear and anger because that’s what drives engagement, clicks, purchases, and donations.

This is why every news cycle brings fresh outrage. Why every development becomes an existential threat. Why every opponent becomes an enemy of civilization itself. Not because the stakes are actually that high, but because high stakes drive revenue.

The result is a population that’s been systematically trained to distrust the people who actually know what they’re talking about while trusting obvious con artists. To see expertise as elitism and ignorance as authenticity. To treat education as indoctrination and propaganda as truth-telling.

They’ve made caring about our children’s future into a character flaw while making nihilistic grifting into a virtue. They’ve turned concern for democracy into hysteria while treating actual authoritarianism as patriotism. They’ve inverted every moral category until up is down, truth is lies, and expertise is the enemy.

And the most tragic part? Many of these people genuinely love their country. They genuinely want their children to have better lives. They genuinely believe they’re fighting for something important.

But they’ve been systematically deceived about who the real threats are and where the actual solutions lie. They’ve been taught to fear the very people trying to help them while trusting the people profiting from their confusion.

The climate scientists warning about environmental collapse? Enemies. The historians documenting democratic erosion? Traitors. The economists explaining why tariffs increase prices? Deep state agents.

But the guy selling gold coins and predicting economic collapse? Patriot. The plagiarist taking Russian money? Truth-teller. The pharmaceutical supplement huckster warning about government mind control? Hero.

This isn’t an information problem. It’s not a media literacy problem. It’s not even a political problem.

It’s an economic problem. There’s simply more money in lying than in truth-telling. More profit in fear than in understanding. More power in ignorance than in expertise.

Until we recognize the grift economy for what it is—a business model built on exploiting people’s worst impulses while making them feel virtuous about it—we’ll keep treating the symptoms while missing the disease.

The disease is that we’ve created economic incentives for deception and moral rewards for nihilism. We’ve built a system where the biggest liars get the biggest platforms and the most shameless grifters accumulate the most power.

And we’ve done it all while convincing ourselves that this is what freedom looks like. That this is what the marketplace of ideas produces. That this is just democracy working as intended.

It’s not democracy. It’s a hostage situation where the hostages have been convinced to pay their kidnappers while attacking anyone trying to rescue them.

The grift economy depends on your willingness to treat obvious con artists as legitimate voices in public discourse. It requires you to pretend that Russian assets deserve the same respect as actual journalists. It needs you to act as if serial plagiarists have something valuable to contribute to political conversation.

Stop playing along.

Stop treating the grift economy as if it’s just another perspective in the marketplace of ideas. Stop pretending that people who profit from chaos deserve a seat at the table of serious discussion. Stop acting as if obvious lies deserve the same consideration as documented facts.

The people running this racket understand exactly what they’re doing. They’re not confused about truth—they’re actively hostile to it because truth threatens their profit margins. They’re not mistaken about expertise—they’re deliberately undermining it because expertise threatens their authority.

They’ve weaponized stupidity and monetized ignorance while convincing their audience that this makes them rebels against an oppressive system. But they’re not rebels—they’re the system. A shadow system built on lies, powered by fear, and funded by the very people it’s designed to exploit.

Two plus two equals four. There are twenty-four hours in a day. And when someone takes Russian money to spread propaganda while claiming to be a patriot, they’re not a patriot—they’re a traitor who’s successfully branded treason as heroism.

The revolution is recognizing the grift for what it is. The rebellion is refusing to treat con artists as legitimate voices. The resistance is defending expertise against those who profit from ignorance.

Stop buying what they’re selling. Stop pretending their lies deserve respect. Stop treating their nihilism as wisdom.

They’ve turned expertise into the enemy because expertise is their enemy. It threatens their profits, their power, their entire business model.

Choose expertise. Choose truth. Choose the people who actually give a shit about your children’s future over the people who profit from convincing you that caring is weakness.

The grift economy only works if you keep playing along.

Stop playing along.

Remember what’s real.