Political Influencers Are Taking Russian Money, and I Can’t Believe I Haven’t Gotten in on That
I'm free of foreign influence, which is complete bullshit
The Justice Department has charged two employees of a Russian state news agency with funneling nearly $10 million to several prominent right-wing YouTubers. The influencers who received money appear1 to be Dave Rubin, Tim Pool, Benny Johnson, and Lauren Southern — you may not know those names, but you probably would if you were a sexually frustrated 19 year-old who thinks that a second civil war would be the coolest thing to ever happen on this flat Earth. The DOJ also seized 32 internet domains that were part of a Russian propaganda effort called “Operation Doppelganger”, which sounds like a book that John le Carré must have written but somehow didn’t.
This revelation raises questions about who can be trusted in independent media. Which funding sources are okay? What obligation does a content creator have to disclose where their money is coming from? In the interest of leading by example, I’d like to assert that I Might Be Wrong receives no outside money: My work is funded entirely by subscriptions from readers like you. Which raises the question: How the fuck am I missing out on this gravy train? What the fuck, Russia? This blog is doing well, and I’ve made it beyond clear that I’ll debase myself for a modest fee — Russia…come on! You can’t even shoot me an e-mail and see what my integrity would cost?