Patriotism is a goldmine. It can be used to raise money, and most of that money will go into the pockets of the people who are using it to stir up patriotism. It's a way to make money off of people's love for their country.
Interestingly, when I googled dc swamp tales the first result was not the website (a conservative one), but this article (a progressive one impugning it), which rather ironically raises questions about whether the long-standing left-bias problems of big tech have some way to go yet...
The Baffler did a real in-depth article on this back in 2012, called "The Long Con". Their thesis was that this was the real core of the Republican party and has been for decades.
They go into the history of the technology used to build these customer databases and exploit them.
> The lists got bigger, the technology better (“Where are my names?” he nervously asked, studying the surface of the first computer tape containing his trove): twenty-five million names by 1980, destination for some one hundred million mail pieces a year
What's amusing from today's perspective is that it spends quite a lot of time in the intro pointing out how blatant a liar Mitt Romney was. Which of course seems quaint to us all now after Trump.
> The strategic alliance of snake-oil vendors and conservative true believers points up evidence of another successful long march, of tactics designed to corral fleeceable multitudes all in one place—and the formation of a cast of mind that makes it hard for either them or us to discern where the ideological con ended and the money con began.
This is a real problem on the “right”. Whataboutism is fine and I’ve defended it in the past, but it’s hard to argue that conservative media isn’t full of scammy and deceptive advertising and grifting. I see comments talking about deceptive practices on the “left” but at least those serve a political purpose. Propaganda disguised as news is much less off putting than hucksterism disguised as news. I can take the former seriously but the latter is just a joke.
Readit News
Maybe scam websites and charities find it easier to get money from people who aren't apathetic.
Dead Comment
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/06/republican-small-don...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/14/jan-6-hea...
https://www.forbes.com/sites/bobeccles/2022/07/05/grift-capi...
And then we need to deal with the long-standing left-bias problem of reality.
They go into the history of the technology used to build these customer databases and exploit them.
> The lists got bigger, the technology better (“Where are my names?” he nervously asked, studying the surface of the first computer tape containing his trove): twenty-five million names by 1980, destination for some one hundred million mail pieces a year
What's amusing from today's perspective is that it spends quite a lot of time in the intro pointing out how blatant a liar Mitt Romney was. Which of course seems quaint to us all now after Trump.
https://thebaffler.com/salvos/the-long-con
> The strategic alliance of snake-oil vendors and conservative true believers points up evidence of another successful long march, of tactics designed to corral fleeceable multitudes all in one place—and the formation of a cast of mind that makes it hard for either them or us to discern where the ideological con ended and the money con began.
Dead Comment
Welcome to politics.