The third and last grifter I’d like to introduce is psychology PhD, and international best-selling author Jordan B (for Blowhard?) Peterson, who has rightly or wrongly been titled “King of the Incels” and – again, rightly or wrongly – renowned for being the stupid man’s intellectual and oxymoronic religious agnostic.
Embraced – yet again, rightfully or wrongfully – by the far right, our genius/wordsmith, for whatever reason, and for all of his apparent intellect and vast vocabulary, can’t seem to go very long without an intellectual and/or communicative epic fail. His penchant for fact-free philosophizing is a likely contributor, but all I can say, certainly from my observations of it all, is that for someone with such a renowned vocabulary, he sure says a lot of dumb things. Far too many to include in this post, in fact.
I imagine the multi-millionaire’s and (of course) free-market capitalist’s modus operandi for “making more monis” was, as far as his breakthrough book was concerned, to simply assemble and publish a blend of rational but unremarkable “rules for life”, twelve in all, and stand back while it tops the best-selling lists globally, surely owing to his massive online following. In my opinion, when the haul for this grift was realized, it certainly didn’t take a genius to realize there were many more millions available for the making (taking?), almost like shooting fish (lobster?) in a barrel. Hence, the publication of another even dozen.
Fortunately for him, the genesis of this empire began with his perfectly reasonable position on Canadian Bill C-16, his subsequent uploading of his views on YouTube in protest of it, then its being picked up by the press, deemed newsworthy due to his being a professor at the University of Toronto. Equally as fortunately, the controversy resulted in his being invited onto the wildly popular Joe Rogan Experience podcast, where he waxed poetically with abandon, unchecked, begetting millions of fans ‘n’ followers.
Our intellectual dark web culture warrior and free-speech martyr, along with Andrew – who is also linked to this comic book supervillan’s, coat-tail-ridin’, mini-me daughter, Mikhaila – is constantly word salad spinning a hero’s journey narrative around he and his little girl. Together, they frame the world as the “everyman and everywoman’s” enemy and themselves as the “good guy ‘n’ gal”, truth be damned.
I’m posting this, not to cast aspersions on these people, qualifying all of the above by saying it’s gleaned from superficial research only. With so much written on them difficult to confirm without spending time I don’t have, and with these individuals being famous for playing fast-and-loose-with-the-truth victims while making broad proclamations anyway, I’m more concerned with my Make More Monie mentees. With that, I want each and every one of ‘em to understand that all of these people have generated serious money, and likely have had a great time doing it. To me, they represent the epitome of financial (only) success.
However, the ratio of transactional value given to what a “Top Grifter” gives is completely one-sided, in my opinion, and not for those marks caught in their sales funnels. Furthermore, I can guarantee you that none of them, in their wildest dreams, imagined they would have reached the heights attained, and long before they did, they first had to gain name recognition and a source of income that supported the climb.
They did this the way anyone must; by having the ability to fill a need. Only then can anyone launch themselves to the next level, regardless of whether their objective is a sure thing; perhaps in one of the strong job growth categories of healthcare, STEM occupations, creative fields and business services, likely to be realized by hard/smart work as opposed to “hustling”, or the quintessential long shot; that again surely takes years of concerted effort, luck, networking and/or being very well-financed to achieve.
In short, become a “top gun” in whatever realm interests you – that you can become skilled in, and that is able to be monetized – not a top grifter. It’s a much more honorable goal, and much, much more gangster!
Disclaimer: The information contained herein should not be construed or considered professional advice. Nonetheless, thanks for reading! If it resonates, there’s “plenty more where that came from” on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube ‘n’ Twitter.