Taking unpopular principled positions and not receiving any monetary or professional benefit is the Twitter definition of grifter https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1298668293558095880

The easy grift in the Trump era is jumping any number of liberal bandwagons -- Russiagate, MeToo, identity pol, scapegoating police for every problem in society, claiming America is Nazi Germany -- positions that get you foundation gigs, TV invites and millions of followers.

Anyone on the left who slows down and says hey, maybe these issues are more complicated than a simple political slogan, and any of these claims require evidence and careful reporting, gets shadow banned from professional life. Responsible reporting is a career loser.

Just follow the money, the cushy MSNBC gigs, tens of millions of dollars from the Ford Foundation, Tides Foundation & corporate sponsored charity grants go almost exclusively to people who professionally exaggerate and promote fashionable (and often false) liberal narratives.

There is little to no institutional support for those who question conventional wisdom, promote humanitarian equal justice principles or focus on fundamental economic rights of labor power, healthcare, education, housing etc Those positions are unpopular in elite liberal circles.

There's an obvious push by many large corporations, media outlets and major institutions that fund almost every group on the left to promote unthinking partisanship, racial tribalism over equal human rights. Anyone who questions the crude logic of racial sectarianism is smeared.

The psychology of the left is rooted in a desire to feel morally righteous. That can be an impulse that drives positive change. But it can also be easily manipulated w/simplistic virtue narratives completely divorced from policies that produce any improvements in society.

The common thread that binds the liberal bandwagon issues is a lack of any focus on the powerful. The wealthy don't care if society is torn apart w/identity pol, Russia hysteria or crime skyrockets in impoverished neighborhoods. Elite taxes stay low, corporations are untouched.