It is apparent, that there is a significant portion of the population, who do not have any concept of “The Hustle.” Their lives must be so … routine or rigid , that they don’t know any “Hustlers.”
(by Tom Spencer/TX)
Then there are the people who are, by necessity, busy earning a living. They don’t have time enough or inclination enough to pay much attention. They do occasionally run into a personality type that tells them what they want to hear; flatters them; misrepresents the truth; lies directly to them; and finally takes advantage of them either physically or financially. But it’s specific and personal to them and they don’t recognize that those behaviors that they see and experience generalize and build into a Grifter personality type. And the Grifter’s M.O. is what is described by the shorthand term, as “The Hustle.”
And then there are the Hustlers.
Grifter : Noun
(plural grifters)
1. A con man. Someone who pulls confidence games.
1939. „We’re all grifters. So we sell each other out for a nickel“. The Big Sleep. Raymond Chandler
1958. „That was the train the drunks and the sinners rode–the gambling men and the grifters, the big-time spenders, the skirt-chasers, and all the jolly crew“. That Hell-Bound Train. Robert Bloch
We are experiencing “The Hustle” writ large on our national scene.
Donald J. Trump was born and raised in a Hustler/Grifter’s household. His Father figure was dominative, calculating and … less than truthful as the recently documented revelations by the NYT clearly demonstrate. He is also described elsewhere as a racist and as supporting racist organizations.
The Grifter calls that “fake news” and continues “The Hustle” and 28 to 40 percent of the population depending on the issue says “oh yeah, I like what I hear , tell me more.” And so he does, because in our now mediafied society he recognizes that with the number of people the 24/7 media cycle allows him to reach means that if he says it enough times and enough people hear it, it becomes the TRUTH.
And we are here. In our current mediafied, self-absorbed , selfie-obsessed, society, we have become a culture not of, “We are all in the together,” but a culture of, “I got mine to Hell with you.” And Grifter Trump is stoking and milking our condition for all it and he are worth.
I’m choosing not to go that way. Actually I’m thinking, oddly enough, in a more Christian manner.
What would Jesus do?