Thread by @TheRealHoarse

Since this con artist has re-irritated me, let’s take a look at how she uses faux-wisdom to exploit and manipulate vulnerable targets.

Let’s use this one post.

The tone is empathetic as if she cares about the people she’s about to fleece.

1/

The target she’s looking to identify and exploit are people who self-identify as having been taken advantage of by the system.

She’s looking for hand-raisers.

Every “That’s me!” is a marketing lead.

2/

And for every one those of people, she has drawn a circle; placed herself inside it with them; identified a villain; and placed it outside the circle.

Nothing unites like a common enemy.

“It’s us vs them and I’m part of ‘us’!”

3/

Now, needless to say, there is absolutely nothing about the rich, grifty woo-woo merchant from Southern Cal that in any way overlaps with the lives of picketing workers.

But now she’s in the circle with them.

4/

Now, back to her post.

- she ingratiates herself to both working class and MAGA readers who see themselves as taken advantage of by the system; and

- she grants the MAGA rally crowd absolution. It’s not their fault; it’s the system’s!

5/

Her premise - which was never meant to be earnest analysis - is absurdly, diametrically opposite of the truth.

Picketing workers (like those at Kellogg’s) are often low-wage workers from exploited, marginalized communities.

6/

MAGA rally attendees, contrary to common misperception, weren’t the working poor. They weren’t the hopeless hourly wage workers at Kellogg’s.

They were middle class whites with homes and trucks and incomes far above poverty.

7/

And those MAGA rally attendees were galvanized by Trump’s race-baiting about how those Black and brown picketers at Kellogg’s were the “real enemy”.

Williamson’s post is basically “the Klan and the people they terrorize are pretty much the same at the end of the day.”

8/

It is an absurdly stupid statement.

But it isn’t meant to be true.

It is meant to only one thing: attract fish to the boat.

9/

Everything Williamson does is standard narcissist targeting, grooming and manipulation.

- identify someone suffering or unhappy
- make them feel like she shares their pain
- identify someone/something external to blame
- offer them a path to relief
- monetize it

10/

Williamson’s tweet was aiming for a new audience:

- MAGA

Specifically, middle-class white women with some discretionary income who are unhappy with their lives and who haven’t heard of Williamson because they aren’t Democrats.

11/

What Williamson does is not much different than how cults recruit.

They prey on the vulnerable and powerless; promise them relief; and exploit their pain.

And that is what Trump did too.

Not shocking at all that MW would target MAGA.

Con artists fish where the fish are.

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