I’m not a fan of New Year’s resolutions. If I have a goal I don’t wait until New Year’s to go after it. I just start. But this year, I have one modest resolution: I will retire use of the word GRIFTER. I’ll admit, I’ve used it. Maybe too much. You won’t have trouble finding tweets in which I do. I’ve tried to reserve it for those I perceived as the griftiest of grifters.
One of the techniques, quite effective as well, of Team Apocalypse is to use words as a negative label. The members of short attention span theater, which is most of the hoi polloi, will latch on. Racist! Trumper! Homophobic! These mental shortcuts are, unfortunately, effective. All of that, to say, great essay!
Great read Jennifer. The “catastrophization” of language (e.g., words are violence, etc.) must be met head on by opposition to the manipulative hyperbole. I don’t often disagree with you but this time I think we need to stand up to the “language grifters” (see what I did there 😜)
like all words, "grifter" is neither good or bad; it is useful when applied correctly and these days, dangerous when used in it's broadened capacity. this is language mission creep.
my favorites are when very pro-vaccine people accuse vaccine hesitant people of being on the take- making "millions" from russian disinformation campaigns. like seriously, Dr Kory getting rich prescribing off patent ivermectin while the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are "free?" meanwhile no one questions how a company "giving" vaccines out for "free" can add $38 billion to it's bottom line in a quarter.
the best was one saturday on TWIV, Dr Daniel Griffin's weekly clinical update, an opportunity to push covid fear porn, remind us again of how many thousands of children were dying, and cement the narrative through slogans, obviously written by PR firms- "no one is safe till everyone is safe," "children are at low risk but not at no risk," "never miss an opportunity to vaccinate."
he gives a quote every week, often something by Churchill. that particular week, he quoted Galileo- "In the sciences, the authority of thousands of opinions is not worth as much as one tiny spark of reason in an individual man."
how is he going to make this work, i wondered? talk about grift. he tried to portray himself and other mainstream virologists as brave iconoclasts, standing up to the "powerful anti-vaccine disinformation lobby." seriously? he and his brothers are high priests in the club with fauci as their pope. no one is shutting down their twitter accounts or taking away their grants, threatening their medical licenses. they aren't losing their jobs and their reputations.
and yet they see the "anti vaccine lobby," which is really a bunch of parents of vaccine injured children, as a threat to their hegemony.
listen to an old JRE podcast with guest crazy person Peter Hotez trying to fabricate motives for RFKjr's call for safer vaccines. that's gotta count as grift.
Works for me! I've been called a grifter, because I am a trans widow and I wrote a memoir about the derailment of my marriage/intact family and my process of healing, as if a self-published book on this topic is going to make me rich.
The problem here is that Leftists over-apply negative words, without any regard for the word's meaning. 'Racist,' 'nazi,' and 'fascist' have all become all-purpose slurs for Leftists.
I don't know whether it's a lack of information, a lack of intelligence, or just an extreme degree of hatred that motives this kind of word abuse. But it has certainly cheapened our language.
It’s unfortunate that the word has been appropriated and misused so widely, mostly by the progressives who like to accuse others of what they themselves are actually doing. I personally think it still applies to people like Kendi, who are raking in huge speaking fees for brief appearances to spout their racist theories.
Grifter. Yet another word with its legitimate definition destroyed by the blue-no-matter-whos and the rest of the neoliberal crowd.
Add it to the list with "woke," "recession," and "vaccine" for terms that have been incorrectly redefined from their original meanings to suit the Establishment agendas.
One of the techniques, quite effective as well, of Team Apocalypse is to use words as a negative label. The members of short attention span theater, which is most of the hoi polloi, will latch on. Racist! Trumper! Homophobic! These mental shortcuts are, unfortunately, effective. All of that, to say, great essay!
Great read Jennifer. The “catastrophization” of language (e.g., words are violence, etc.) must be met head on by opposition to the manipulative hyperbole. I don’t often disagree with you but this time I think we need to stand up to the “language grifters” (see what I did there 😜)
like all words, "grifter" is neither good or bad; it is useful when applied correctly and these days, dangerous when used in it's broadened capacity. this is language mission creep.
my favorites are when very pro-vaccine people accuse vaccine hesitant people of being on the take- making "millions" from russian disinformation campaigns. like seriously, Dr Kory getting rich prescribing off patent ivermectin while the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are "free?" meanwhile no one questions how a company "giving" vaccines out for "free" can add $38 billion to it's bottom line in a quarter.
the best was one saturday on TWIV, Dr Daniel Griffin's weekly clinical update, an opportunity to push covid fear porn, remind us again of how many thousands of children were dying, and cement the narrative through slogans, obviously written by PR firms- "no one is safe till everyone is safe," "children are at low risk but not at no risk," "never miss an opportunity to vaccinate."
he gives a quote every week, often something by Churchill. that particular week, he quoted Galileo- "In the sciences, the authority of thousands of opinions is not worth as much as one tiny spark of reason in an individual man."
how is he going to make this work, i wondered? talk about grift. he tried to portray himself and other mainstream virologists as brave iconoclasts, standing up to the "powerful anti-vaccine disinformation lobby." seriously? he and his brothers are high priests in the club with fauci as their pope. no one is shutting down their twitter accounts or taking away their grants, threatening their medical licenses. they aren't losing their jobs and their reputations.
and yet they see the "anti vaccine lobby," which is really a bunch of parents of vaccine injured children, as a threat to their hegemony.
listen to an old JRE podcast with guest crazy person Peter Hotez trying to fabricate motives for RFKjr's call for safer vaccines. that's gotta count as grift.
Works for me! I've been called a grifter, because I am a trans widow and I wrote a memoir about the derailment of my marriage/intact family and my process of healing, as if a self-published book on this topic is going to make me rich.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/6kfoI3yfbMk
It's one of many words that literally now just means 'I don't like you'.
Misuse of the English language simply degrades almost all discourse. Shamefully in the providence of the untutored and the lazy.
REALLY REALLY GOOD !
Honestly Intelligent & Thoughtfully Articulate.
*
It is no easy gift
To be made
A synthetic pif,
& Sent far adrift.
But KNOW
THAT THERE'S
A Perceptual Shift,
Which IS
A Perpetual Gift !
When We See
Those Who grift it
& Point bent-on
Gnarled finger swift,
To 'n fro in---sway,
And Accuse
Your Working Day,
In opposite's
Crazy Way.
Thank You, Jennifer. & Michele Tafoya
The problem here is that Leftists over-apply negative words, without any regard for the word's meaning. 'Racist,' 'nazi,' and 'fascist' have all become all-purpose slurs for Leftists.
I don't know whether it's a lack of information, a lack of intelligence, or just an extreme degree of hatred that motives this kind of word abuse. But it has certainly cheapened our language.
It’s unfortunate that the word has been appropriated and misused so widely, mostly by the progressives who like to accuse others of what they themselves are actually doing. I personally think it still applies to people like Kendi, who are raking in huge speaking fees for brief appearances to spout their racist theories.
"AN
INCREASE
IN
OUTPUT"
~~ 2 BRIGHT SOLDIERS
BOTH HUMAN ~~
# 308
U.S. NAVY FIGHTER FLYER
LEX FRIDMAN
INTER-VIEW
RYAN GRAVES
"FIGHTING FOR WHAT WE NEED"
"HUMAN V. HUMAN"
...WAIT FOR IT...
https://youtu.be/qLDp-aYnR1Y
"Put On Your Thinking Caps"
Again.
Grifter. Yet another word with its legitimate definition destroyed by the blue-no-matter-whos and the rest of the neoliberal crowd.
Add it to the list with "woke," "recession," and "vaccine" for terms that have been incorrectly redefined from their original meanings to suit the Establishment agendas.