A good friend sent me the song Complicit, Repeat by Bambu, in between us talking about Apple’s TV show, Pluribus, and it got my mind churning.
“The most miserable person in the world must save the world from happiness.”
That’s Apple’s tagline for the new show, where all of humanity save for 12 people are infected with a type of alien virus that joins us all into a psychic hive mind. It’s still early in the show’s run, but there are a lot of theories as to what it’s about, including AI, consumerism and influencers, the dangers of groupthink, and political ideologies like fascism, communism, and others. Those infected with the virus and now part of the hive mind try to convince the 12 others that being part of the hive is a good thing and that they will find a way to infect the outliers. All but the main character seem to agree that this is a good thing.
We, in North America and many other parts of the globe, are living in strange times. To put it mildly. Fascism is growing like a noxious weed; late-stage capitalism has more and more people fighting to get by, while many turn to grifting. If you aren’t familiar, grifting refers to a group of methods for obtaining money falsely through the use of swindles, frauds, dishonest gambling, etcetera. In other words, people who benefit from deception, dishonesty, and other forms of exploitation are grifters. And the grift game is strong in 2025, with every celebrity, politician, and brand trying to sway opinion and bank accounts for some type of gain.
It’s hard not to buy in. It’s hard to resist.
Every day, we’re all blasted by every screen and printable surface about some promised value or benefit. You can find anything you want, and now AI is here to provide you with anything you ask for. It’s easy. All you have to do is tap a button.
How many people stop to ask themselves, “Is this too easy?” “Is this information actually true?” “Do I really need this?” “Will I regret this later?” “Who benefits most from this?” “Does my buying fund something or someone I disagree with?”
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are a grifter’s bonanza. The majority of us jump in, looking for the next deal. We can make excuses that capitalism has us by the cajones, and it’s cheaper to buy these things that one time a year, but are we really all buying things we need? Or are the psychological aspects of the whole thing pushing many to buy items with unclear or questionable value? And I’m not saying people should only buy necessities—I’m just pointing out the giant grift of it all. Alluding to how someone or a corporation is benefiting in an outsized, gross way.
It wouldn’t be so bad if we were all wealthy, or if we all benefited from all that money entering the economy. But we aren’t. We don’t. And it doesn’t. The vast majority of the wealth generated by sales like Black Friday and Cyber Monday gets centralized among the top 1% of wealthy individuals and corporations. It doesn’t help build roads, pay for school lunches, fund health care, or anything else. It buys yachts.
Amazon has reported record sales events over the last few years, including its largest-ever 2023 holiday period and strong 2024 Black Friday ($10.8 billion U.S. online, up 10% YoY). Jeff Bezos’ net worth has risen broadly in recent years because of this.
Taxing the rich is often portrayed by billionaires as detrimental to growth and jobs (a grift), but analyses from organizations like Brookings and others show it can be structured efficiently to minimize distortions while raising revenue for public needs like infrastructure, health care, and education. Wealth taxes on ultra-high earners could generate hundreds of billions annually without any proven harm to investment. The funny thing about that? The rich have gotten so good at their grift that when folks like the USA’s presidential nominee, Kamala Harris, attempted to run on taxing the rich, millions of people voted against their own best interests because they thought “taxing the rich” meant them. In reality, Kamala Harris’ plan only targetted around 2,600 individuals who were above $100 million net worth. That’s less than 0.01% of the US population. This didn’t stop other rich and elite grifters like Trump from spewing false information that taxing the rich would hurt small businesses, families, and so on.
Meanwhile, food insecurity has risen sharply, affecting 47.4 million U.S. households in 2023 and continuing into 2024-2025 amid ongoing inflation-driven spikes. Wage gaps widened for women (81 cents per dollar vs. men) and minorities, per Census and IWPR data. Job cuts have exceeded 1 million in the U.S. by late 2025 (Canadian sources were harder for me to find)—a 44% jump from 2024—hitting tech, retail, and government amid economic shifts.
I don’t want to see all of the wealth concentrated among the few, and I want to see my community thrive. So, then I have to ask myself: where should I buy, when should I buy, and what should I buy? Who benefits, and how do I hold them accountable? Am I experiencing a grift? Am I just going along with the masses? Because if I don’t ask myself those questions often, and especially at this time of year, am I not complicit in it all?
Wow, what a rant.
This is where my mind goes when watching Pluribus and listening to Bambu, as we go through another Black Friday and Cyber Monday. I wonder to myself: Do I choose catharsis or complicity?
I guess this is where I plug my new newsletter on Ghost that will collect articles like this one into your inbox.