Really interesting article - one of the more insightful theories I’ve seen for truly understanding why people are attracted to the right’s outright lying and bad faith posturing.
Cults tend to charge for immaterial things, and if you complain they say it’s your fault it didn’t work, and to fix it you need to give more.
This is different.
These are capitalist grifts where the victims anticipate a tangible exchange of goods.
It’s a lot harder to say a shitty watch is worth it when it can be appraised and assigned real world value.
It’s not going to be a huge loss of support, but like I said, this is just chipping away at the most feverant supporters, which historically is the best way to fight fascism. And Trump’s doing it to himself because he’s greedy
He’s been doing the watch grift since before the last election.
Some watch collectors ordered earlier models to see how bad they are, and they’re basically being made with the same components as shitty Rolex knockoffs, which line up with assumptions after hearing the producers name.
If you know absolutely nothing about watches they might seem different, but if you appraise it or a collector looks at, they’ll probably openly laugh when looking at them.
It’s cheap junk spray painted gold then stamped with Trump’s name and the word “crypto”.
It is on them for buying one in the first place.
Conservatives do t understand consequences till they are effected…
All these grifts do, is slowly chip away at his most loyal supporters, because they’re the only ones even attempting to buy this shit.
You might be right, but I think the question is, “does my commitment to the cult outweigh my commitment to self and empirical reality?”
I think like in any other cult that fleeces its members, the answer for many is, “yes.”
Just saw this article today on ArsTechnica, which seems relevant: https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/10/believing-misinformation-is-a-win-for-some-people-even-when-proven-false/
Really interesting article - one of the more insightful theories I’ve seen for truly understanding why people are attracted to the right’s outright lying and bad faith posturing.
Cults tend to charge for immaterial things, and if you complain they say it’s your fault it didn’t work, and to fix it you need to give more.
This is different.
These are capitalist grifts where the victims anticipate a tangible exchange of goods.
It’s a lot harder to say a shitty watch is worth it when it can be appraised and assigned real world value.
It’s not going to be a huge loss of support, but like I said, this is just chipping away at the most feverant supporters, which historically is the best way to fight fascism. And Trump’s doing it to himself because he’s greedy
How do we know the watches are shitty? Apparently the complaints are they never got one in the first place!
He’s been doing the watch grift since before the last election.
Some watch collectors ordered earlier models to see how bad they are, and they’re basically being made with the same components as shitty Rolex knockoffs, which line up with assumptions after hearing the producers name.
If you know absolutely nothing about watches they might seem different, but if you appraise it or a collector looks at, they’ll probably openly laugh when looking at them.
It’s cheap junk spray painted gold then stamped with Trump’s name and the word “crypto”.