“The Other 98%” Are Thieves, Scabs, and Grifters

Hi, everybody! Today, we’re going to have a conversation about clickbait and thieving and scabs and grifters.

I have gone on for a long time here on my page and done the best that I could over the years to try to raise awareness that there are a lot of bad actors out there, a lot of people who are out there pretending to be leftist and progressive and all this other stuff, but all they do is throw other people’s work around and gather up tons and tons of money. They suck all the oxygen out of the room so real activists and real creators can’t be heard and can be seen and can’t get over.

So September 3rd, I posted a status message, just an off the top of my head thought about the the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike out in California.

You can see September 3rd at about 11:00 Eastern PM, I posted this status message

Studios are canceling things to make you mad at striking screenwriters and actors. Don’t fall for it.

– me, at https://www.facebook.com/JohnHenryUS/posts/pfbid0dNcTmDSsgjxt5EEqZUBB4VGYrmnf4JaUPjdhVy5q4Wy8215Z1h9AskUbiLEbEWHTl

I posted that on the third and it just kind of sat there for a few days and didn’t really go anywhere. Then all of a sudden, I guess maybe yesterday or late the day before, I noticed I was getting a lot of hits on my Facebook page for some reason, like extraordinary traffic for me, the kind of numbers that I haven’t seen since Facebook shut down the “I love to wake up in the morning when Barack Obama was president” page, which had 200,000 people following it. My little page has 5000 people on it, right? I’m thinking man, this is awesome because I’m part of Facebook’s bonus program now, I actually get paid for my content. And the more people engage and the more people share and spread it around and like and comment, the more I get paid.

So I’m thinking, yeah, this is awesome. And I watch the numbers and it was like 25,000 people had seen it. And I’m like, wow, that’s, that’s, you know, my normal reach is about nine, 10,000 people a month and all of a sudden it’s doubled and then some. I thought, “Wow, that’s really cool,” and then I just watched it keep climbing – somebody with some reach or a few somebodies with some reach picked up on this message and spread it around and it went sub-viral.

The last time I looked at the numbers, it had been seen by 150,000 people and blah, blah, blah. Right. Cool, awesome, maybe I’ll pick up a few new followers out of it.

So a little while ago one of my readers, Jenna – and thank you, Jenna! – pointed out to me this Facebook page called “The Other 98%” had straight up ripped my post off, posted it as their own, and were making huge traffic with it.

Now like I said earlier, The Other 98% is one of these grifting garbage, thieving, stealing, underhanded, unoriginal piece of crap pages that have built up a huge following, they have 7 million people following them, and all they do is steal other people’s work. They add nothing to the conversation. They don’t do anything but take energy away from real activists and real creators, and they steal all of that energy and direct it towards their own pages.

I cannot tell you how heartbroken I have been over the years to continually tell people over and over and over again, “you’re being played. These are not left wingers. These are not progressives. These people don’t care anything about solidarity or unions, strength or labor rights or anything else. They’re just trying to line their pockets by appealing to your biases.”

And I’ve told and told and told and people who I still think very well of and think of as friends, just ignore it. Just ignore it. It’s like I’m not even talking. Right. So, Jenna, one of my readers, showed me this a little while ago on my page, this is the other 98 post from 9 hours ago. It has had one word added to it, one word: Hollywood. That and changing “stuff” to “shows” are the only changes made.

They’ve got 7 million people following them. I have 5000. You look at the bottom of the screen, 14,000 likes, 1700 comments, 3.6 thousand shares. Based on what I’m seeing from my bonus program, on the numbers from the same post that I originally made, that is at least at least $50 to $100 that’s coming out of my pocket because they stole my work.

They stole my work.

These are supposedly progressives and leftists. These are your left-wing heroes. These are your flag wavers of the progressive movement, these are the folks the DNC pays big money to pretend to be grassroots independent activism.

These are the people who are supposed to be standing against all the plutocrats and all the corporations that are exploiting our labor. 7 million people, stolen from by these underhanded pigs.

I got 5000 followers on Facebook. I’m not housing secure. I don’t eat on a regular basis. I don’t have shoes that can go outside without my socks getting soaked. I don’t own a car. The computer I’m doing this through is ten years old, and these grifting scumbags have to steal my work, take money directly out of my pocket, take food directly out of my mouth.

You think I’m not angry? You have no idea how much self-control I am exercising right now.

The only reason I regret not believing those people are worth the cost of a gallon of gas is that means I don’t get to pour it on, set them on fire, and then refuse to dishonor my perfectly good urine by using it to put them out. Scum. They are scum. They are taking 7 million people for a ride lying through their teeth to them, putting themselves over.

They’re no different than that white guy in Australia a couple of years ago who collected $100,000 in donations by pretending to represent Black Lives Matter. These people are no different. They are scabs. What they did is no different than crossing a picket line, walking into my office as a screenwriter (if I was one), taking my work, picking it up, writing one word on it, claiming it as their own, and taking my paycheck.

That’s the other 98%. That’s your big liberal left wing hero that’s fighting your battles for you. And you wonder why the left in this country can’t get anywhere, can’t get anything done. How much more blatant and obvious does it have to be? These people are scum. They don’t deserve your support. They don’t deserve to breathe, as far as I’m concerned…but I got to be real careful how I say that or I’ll get in trouble because it’s okay for them to steal my work, but it’s not okay for me to be angry about it.

How dare you? How dare you steal somebody’s words standing in solidarity with striking union labor and scab it. Who the hell do you think you are, you disgusting pigs?

7 million people following these clowns. Half of them are following me, too. This is who you’re paying attention to. This is who you’re rewarding. This is who you’re paying. Every time. And nobody wants to hear it. Nobody wants to listen because nobody likes to be wrong and nobody likes to think they got took for a ride.

Well, folks, I am showing you right now the absolute clear, incontrovertible evidence you are being taken for a ride by the other 98% and every page like them on the Internet who does the same thing. Every one of them is the same, the other 98% and being liberal and addicting info and all of them, they all do the same thing. They steal other people’s work,and that’s how they build their audiences. That’s how they build their audiences. That’s why they have 7 million people following them. And it’s why I have 5000 following me. Because when I do good work, nobody realizes it’s my work because these chumps steal it, call it their own. And who am I? Oh, I’m just some ranting and raving angry longhair on the internet.

Learn, Stop rewarding these people. Pay attention to who you’re sharing from. Pay attention to who you’re following and rewarding with your traffic and your eyeballs and your endorsement that you are making every time you share their content. They are thieves. They are stealing. Every single person that has ever given me so much as a dollar just got stolen from by the other 98%.

I’m talking about senior citizens on fixed incomes who barely have food of their own. But they believe enough in what I do to toss me 25 bucks once in a while. I’m talking about people that are on the streets themselves that see my work and hear what I had to say, and they go, “this is power, this is right, this guy needs support” and they’ll send me five bucks when they don’t even have food of their own. And that’s who the other 98 is ripping off. Every single striking worker that’s on a picket line right now just got stolen from. And half of y’all are helping them do it. Wake up. You are being played. And it ain’t by me.

You have to stop falling for this stuff. You have to start doing that diligence, paying attention, finding out who you’re supporting, who people are, what they’re doing with your money.

I starve. I go a day at a time without eating. Sometimes two because I can’t get income for all the work I do. 500 plus posts a month. Nobody sees them because anything I post that gets over, somebody else steals it and puts it over as their own and then they get paid. It is no different than if they walked across those picket lines and took the money out of the hands of the people who are on strike. It’s absolutely no different and you have to stop supporting it.

This is why we can’t have a solid left wing in this country because we keep getting misled and misdirected by these people, pandering to our biases and we fall for it. They get paid, they get rewarded, and it just goes right back into the machine. And in the meantime, the people who are out here busting their asses, dying, starving, begging, going without food, going without shelter, going without clothing, going without computer equipment are losing out to these giant, thieving, grifting scab scumbags.

The only reason that works is because we, the people, keep letting at work and it has to stop. I am begging you, please stop putting these people over. They are thieves. They are stealing from you. They are stealing from me. And they are stealing the oxygen out of the entire left wing in this country.

Thank you very much. Have a nice evening.