In today's #vatniksoup, I'll discuss the anatomy of a grifter. As a case study, I'll talk about @jacksonhinklle, and how he's utilizing social media to make money and become a popular yet highly controversial figure online.
1/18
My #vatniksoup on Hinkle was published already back in Feb 2023, but a lot has happened since then: his YouTube channel has been removed due to the massive amount of disinformation he spread, and he was also banned from TikTok.
2/18
After this, he started focusing heavily on X/Twitter. His account is the fastest growing account on the platform, and 5 minutes don't pass without him advertising his 3USD "premium subscription" with no notable benefits to the subscribers.
3/18
There are two important characteristics that most "good" grifters possess: 1) they disregard the truth, and 2) are completely cynical in their worldview and they basically have no moral compass - in short, they go where the money is.
4/18
Jackson usually goes on the offensive when his income is at jeopardy. After @elonmusk said that Community Noted posts will get demonetized, he immediately claimed that "Zionists" have "hijacked" these Notes and mobilized people to rate any notes on his posts as "unhelpful".
5/18
You see, Hinkle is actually very good with social media and community building. He knows how people are lured into BS & he for example uses his relatively large Discord server to mobilize people to attack or "ratio" any posts that criticizes Jackson or his disgusting grift.
6/18
Partly due to this, his account on X/Twitter has become MASSIVE: as of today, he has close to 2 million followers and allegedly over 7000 subscribers. By my estimates, he is currently making anything between 20 000 and 30 000 USD a month on this platform alone.
7/18
Out of the nearly 2 million followers, 1,5 million have started following him in the last 30 days, after he switched his pro-Kremlin narrative to a pro-Hamas one. It also shows the cynical approach of switching narratives overnight as long as it benefits his wallet.
8/18
And as you can guess, Hinkle wasn't always like this; let's look at his transformation throughout the years.
Still in 2019, when he was running for San Clemente City Council, he ran on the LGBT+ platform, rainbow flags and all. He was also a big "Bernie bro", heavily...
9/18
...supporting Bernie Sanders' left-wing policies. His ex-girlfriend, Sarah Brady, considered him a "democratic socialist" at that time, but some time after she broke up with him, something changed: Jackson become a Andrew Tate -type macho misogynist, condemning...
10/18
..."OnlyFans girls" while at the same time trying to get them to date him. Then, he started going against the "woke culture" and associated himself with @jordanbpeterson, a pro-Kremlin psychologist who would later strongly support Netanyahu's efforts against Hamas.
11/18
It's worth noting, that Hinkle's social media growth is by no means organic. For example, he gained hundreds of thousands of followers in just a few days during his recent trip to Moscow. Another surge came right after Hamas' terrorist attack on 7 Oct 2023.
12/18
Of course supporting Hamas is yet another opportunist scheme to make more money. Below you can see a video from around a year ago, where Hinkle praises Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu for his "great collaboration" with the likes of Putin and Xi.
13/18
Then, just a week ago he shared an AI-generated image of bloody Bibi, calling for the prosecution of him for war crimes. Naturally, he's called one of Putin's closest allies, Bashar al-Assad a "hero". But in reality, al-Assad (like most other Arab leaders)...
14/18
...doesn't give a shit about Palestinians. As a matter of fact, he sieged and bombed the Palestinian refugee outpost, Yarmouk, located in Damascus, Syria already back in 2013. This led to significant deterioration in conditions for the Palestinians inside the camp.
15/18
Whether Hinkle is a Russian operative or not is irrelevant - this has nothing to do with his values or morals. He seems to be the kind of person who'll do or say anything to earn money and get attention.
For example, he recently challenged @benshapiro to a debate.
16/18
Post-truth society allows people like Donald Trump, @stillgray and @jacksonhinklle to thrive. As there are no consequences to lying or benefits to telling the truth, these people will keep on grifting and making money and gaining power through lies.
17/18
I'll end this soup with Hinkle's tweet of the infamous neo-Nazi slogan "14 words", often used with acts of white supremacist terrorism and violence.
The phrase probably has no meaning to Hinkle, and he presumably posted it to cause controversy and drive engagement.
18/18
All soups:
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CORRECTION 18/18:
The screenshot about the "14 words" is most probably a fake.
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