It's been a really rough week for Republicans who hate reproductive rights, and Republican Rep. Michelle Steel of California is no exception. "As someone who struggled to get pregnant, I believe all life is a gift. IVF allowed me, as it has so many...
  • elliot_crane@lemmy.world
    4·
    9 months ago

    The ironic part is that he’s probably actually intelligent and just a malefactor. You need to be at least more intelligent than the people you’re grifting to successfully grift them.

    • MrFunnyMoustache@lemmy.ml
      1·
      9 months ago

      Wait, so that’s an act? How can someone say the things he is saying with a straight face? That’s just Oscar level acting if that’s the case. I just assumed he had 3 brain cells…

      • elliot_crane@lemmy.world
        2·
        9 months ago

        I mean perhaps I’m just too cynical, but I expect a lot of these pundits don’t get high off their own supply if you catch my drift. In Peterson’s case, his Wikipedia page has a couple things that smell like grift to me:

        • he used to be a Democrat, claimed that religion made him Republican - looks like pandering
        • he started a business at one point (janitorial services; that’s an essential service, so an entrepreneur can do well in that space)
        • he founded a non-profit with a religious slant that has other conservative pundits on the board - this reeks of a conspiracy to sap money from ignorant people, a.k.a., grift
        • meetings with Toyota executives for some undisclosed reason; I feel like it’s pretty hard to rub shoulders with the big dogs like that if you’re an idiot and didn’t have rich parents, and it doesn’t seem like Peterson came from substantial means
        • multiple publications - the titles read like self-help and “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” drivel with an added dash of racism

        All of that to me reads as a cunning individual that’s using gullible and ignorant people to line his own pockets.

        • MrFunnyMoustache@lemmy.ml
          1·
          9 months ago

          Damn, that’s crazy, and it looks like you’re right. He must have the acting talent to make it big in Hollywood, and would have probably made a lot more too… But instead chose to make the world a worse place.

          I still can’t fathom being aware and saying the things he is saying with a straight face.