{"id":115630,"date":"2024-09-14T20:23:28","date_gmt":"2024-09-15T01:23:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/?p=115630"},"modified":"2024-11-19T22:23:09","modified_gmt":"2024-11-20T04:23:09","slug":"the-eric-july-grift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/the-eric-july-grift\/","title":{"rendered":"The Eric July Grift"},"content":{"rendered":"

I first encountered Eric July almost a decade ago when he was arguing with alt right people on Facebook all day. He was an \u201canarcho capitalist\u201d who spewed the regular libertarian talking points about state tyranny and the free market. This is why it was surprising to me when he recently popped up on a movie review channel I occasionally view.<\/p>\n

He was appearing on panels with streamers like The Critical Drinker, Nerdrotic, and others who are part of the \u201canti woke\u201d youtube commentary circuit. Many of these people are libertarian or centrist leaning but their content, while often very normie, effectively attacks the feminist, LGBT, anti-white messaging in mainstream film and TV. But like all commentators that fail to address the core of the problem, they fall prey to the very \u201cwoke\u201d moralizing they oppose.<\/p>\n

Often these nerd channels will be dominated by white men. Despite being champions of white male authors, film makers, etc., and opposing \u201cwokism\u201d they still feel the need to prove their anti-racist, anti-sexist status and will invite mediocre women and minorities to speak on their panels. One of these people is Eric July.<\/p>\n

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Eric July\u2019s long youtube career includes karaoke videos, amature rap songs, conspiracy videos, sports commentary, libertarian commentary, and rap songs about libertarianism. In one video about black people getting shot by police he argued that the problem was \u201ccollectivism\u201d and that the police should be abolished. Around 2015 he started to adopt more of the \u201canti SJW\u201d rhetoric of Trump supporters and right wingers and started to pump out cultural commentary videos. In 2018 he began to work for The Blaze.<\/p>\n

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As time went on, anti-woke commentary exploded on Youtube. Libertarian-ish right wingers like Andrew Torba have long talked about the need for a \u201cparallel economy\u201d- boycott the woke companies and support the alternatives. July decided to apply this to the comic book cultural sphere and created an \u201calternative\u201d comic book universe called \u201cThe Rippaverse\u201d involving multiple series and creators. In 2022 he launched a crowdfunding campaign and raised over $2,000,000.<\/p>\n

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Eric July has the temperament and morality of a libertarian \u201centrepreneur\u201d archetype. In his mind, making money and \u201cproviding content for the consumer\u201d is one of the highest virtues. Every video he makes sounds like a sale pitch. He sticks to a consistent script which allowed him to manipulate the comic book nerds. He makes propaganda videos with dramatic music where he presents himself as a normal comic book reader who started from humble origins and a freedom fighter who just cares about the interest of the noble consumer getting their dollar stolen by the woke corporations.<\/p>\n