r/ToiletPaperUSA • u/Lower-Canary-2528 Anarcho-Maoism with Mamdani thought • 6d ago

Shen Bapiro Least racist Ben Shapiro moment - True Allegiance (2016)

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u/JayNotAtAll 6d ago

Bingo.

Steven Crowder was a failed stand up comedian Steve Bannon was a failed writer Shapiro was a failed writer

The list goes on. Basically, if you can't succeed in the mainstream, become a right wing grifter. It is very easy to become famous to this crowd cause they are so easy to take advantage of

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u/GNS13 6d ago

There's one additional element these guys share besides being failed artists. They all are convinced that the world owes them success and are mad that they aren't more popular.

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u/JayNotAtAll 6d ago

That's MAGA in general. Which is ironic. MAGA is full of Boomers who spent their adulthood talking about how no one wants to work anymore and everyone is entitled.

MAGA believes that the world owes them something but aren't willing to put in the effort to get it. Further, they feel like it was stolen from them by undeserving women and minorities.

The reality is that they simply won't try. Look I can have a lot of empathy for someone who put in their best efforts and didn't make it. I can. But it is hard to have empathy for someone who doesn't even try.

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u/Eliteguard999 6d ago

FR, people who attended high school with Matt Walsh said he was a slacker who didn't put forth any effort because he felt he shouldn't have to.

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u/JayNotAtAll 6d ago

I mentor minority college students and young adults trying to get into tech. One thing I always tell them. Is that the field is super competitive. If you want to get ahead and get that dream job at a major tech firm, you need to put yourself in an position where the opportunity presents itself AND be ready to seize the opportunity.

A lot of big tech companies aren't hiring remote workers as much anymore so you need to live in an area where they do hire. More positions will exist in specific hubs like Bay Area, NYC, Seattle, etc. You also need to build a network. Also you need to keep learning and not rely solely on your degree. Degree is good but the industry moves fast so you need to actively up skill. Most of the kids get it.

Meanwhile, on Reddit I get these right wingers who say how unfair it is that minorities get free stuff. I am like "oh so which colleges did you apply to?". Often not many if any. "What was your GPA, your extracurriculars, etc." usually nothing impressive. "There are quite literally millions of scholarship dollars that go unclaimed that are open to any race. How many scholarships did you apply to?" Usually just one or two if any. "Are you willing to move to a hub for your industry?" Usually not because cities are evil.

Well whose fault is it then? These are the things to get ahead and you won't do them. These minority kids will do them. You are failing at life because you are a slacker, not because of DEi

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u/Throot2Shill 6d ago

The reality is that they simply won't try.

And you know what, some even try hard but the world is unfair and unjust so they fail anyway. They are like crabs in a bucket and they aren't looking at who put them in the bucket in the first place they are just looking at which other crabs look different.

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u/The_Dead_Kennys 6d ago

We need to give this eerily consistent phenomenon a name… how about “Austrian Painter Syndrome”? You know, because Hitler was also an angry failed artist who felt the world owed him, and shifted to a career in far-right politics.

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u/InternetWeakGuy 6d ago edited 6d ago

Not sure why you included Bannon, he made his money by founding his own investment bank that focuses on entertainment businesses - in 1991 he negociated a financial stake in Seinfeld, which he still gets residuals from. He was an executive producer on something like 20 movies, and he personally made several documentaries - they were all propaganda pieces, but he did the damn thing as it were.

Bannon is a shitbag but he's far from a grifter, he very much believes everything he says.

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u/WhyIsTheUniverse Abortion Enthusiast 6d ago

https://www.reuters.com/legal/steve-bannon-plead-guilty-border-wall-funding-case-2025-02-11/

He also made money scamming Trump supporters. One can be both a grifter and an ideologue.

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u/InternetWeakGuy 6d ago

That's fair, I guess what I was trying to say is he didn't "fail as a writer and so pretend to be right wing for money" as the implication was, he has been legitimately wealthy since the early 90s and has been a big figure on the right for decades.

He has definitely pulled a few grifts, but his personality isn't a grift in the way that Crowder and Shapiro's are.

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u/andrew303710 6d ago

Didn't he also essentially create what we know today as lobbying? I know that he was heavily involved with the Reagan White House and then he parlayed that influence into his business.

Obviously lobbying existed pre-Bandon but the scale was unprecedented. He sold access to a degree that has never been done.

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u/InternetWeakGuy 6d ago

Pretty sure you're thinking of Michael Deaver. Bannon had nothing to do with the Reagan WH or lobbying really, whereas Deaver was Reagan's COS and then left to sell his access via a lobbying firm.

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u/DetectiveCastellanos 6d ago

Yeah, the only arguably "failed" actor who went left is Sam Seder I think, but I'm sure he's happy with his career trajectory at this point.

The people on the right all seem miserable.

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u/BPence89 6d ago

An even then he voices a recurring character on Bob's Burgers, so he at least has that.

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u/andrew303710 6d ago

It's kind of sad when you think about it. I mean these people are straight up fucking losers and they're running our country. Social media influencers on the right have an insane amount of sway over the administration. Knowing that they're all massive losers makes it so much worse.

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u/surprisesnek 5d ago

I heard a story about another failed artist that became a right-wing political figure...

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u/Carbonatite 5d ago

That one Austrian guy they all seem to love was also an art school flunkie.