The dumb bitch and the grift

One of the things my cancellers constantly call me is a grifter. The dictionary defines grifter as: “a person who engages in petty or small-scale swindling” and defines swindling as “deception to deprive (someone) of money or possessions.” So basically a grifter is someone who uses deception to rip people off financially.

The accusation “grifter” is a common one among cancellers these days. I think the use of this term betrays the frustrations of a working class without job security or unions, a collapsing middle class that can’t afford home ownership anymore, the decaying promise of academia as a space where intellectuals could earn a living, the AI takeover and Spotification of the arts, music, and other creative work, and the rise of the gig economy and hustle entrepreneurship. Basically — it is fucking hard to make a living, everything costs too much, some people are making money by posting on the internet and turning themselves into a “brand” and it’s not fair. All of this is very understandable, and I have compassion for it. I just think that this anger would be better spent getting organized than attacking people who seem to be doing okay in this dystopian capitalist hellhole.

I admit that my job is very weird. I have never met anyone whose job looks much like mine. But I certainly don’t make my money by posting. I am not an influencer. An influencer is someone with a large social media following who gets paid endorsement gigs from various companies. I have never taken an endorsement gig and I never will. I am a writer, a publisher, and I use my Instagram to share my ideas and promote the writing that I sell to make a living.

My job consists of many different tasks. The foundational labour is intellectual labour: thinking through ideas, reading about ideas, writing, and talking about ideas on my podcast. I primarily see myself as writer because that has always been my most important work, long before I was getting paid for it. I have been self-publishing zines since I was 13 years old. I did it in every stage of my life, no matter how poor or crazy I was. I stole copies, hustled copies, and got cut off from using the photocopier at the street involved youth drop-in-centre because I was making too many copies. I have published more zines than I can count over the years. When I was 30, I decided to try to make writing, publishing, and adjacent creative and intellectual work my full time job. On top of writing, I teach workshops, get interviewed, interview people, and talk to people one on one about stuff they’re thinking about and going through. All of this work is various expressions of the intellectual and creative work I’m constantly doing: thinking really deeply about stuff.

In this way I’m not much different than other intellectual and creative workers. And with the rise of Substack, I’m not even that unusual anymore in being an independent writer (an independent writer is a writer who is primarily self-published rather than primarily writing for publications and presses). Where my job looks really different from other independent writers is that the majority of my income comes from zines. As I said, I’ve been making zines for decades, and now I make them in mass quantities. This is, I think, the weirdest part of my job. My best selling zine has sold more than ten thousand copies. My zines in general sell hundreds, and occasionally, thousands of copies. And I do every step of the process myself, with my own hands.

After the writing is done, I design my zines using scissors and glue like it’s the 90s. Then I take this to the photocopy shop and create a “flat”, a master copy that I will now photocopy from that I keep in a folder. I make hundreds of copies and then I carry those copies home, sometimes in my backpack walking, or if it’s a huge run I take my car and lug the boxes of paper to my car and then into my house. There’s a lot of lifting and carrying heavy boxes. At home I create each zine by hand using my tools: a paper cutter, a long-arm stapler, and a paper flattener. I spend countless hours doing this repetitive, manual labour. I also spend countless hours packing orders: creating labels, filling envelopes, putting on the labels. Then, I bring all the envelopes to the post office, usually I’ll just carry them and walk there but if I have an extra large run I’ll take my car. At the post office, I know the post office workers by name, and we have a specific formula for how we deal with my large quantity mailings. I divide the envelopes by letter mail vs package, and by location. Then, I help the workers attach the postage labels. I’m usually at the post office for a minimum of 40 minutes. On top of all this I need to make sure I’m stocked with supplies: labels, envelopes of various sizes, staples, elastics for organizing zines, tape, and printer ink are the standard supplies.

I basically run a small press that produces zines instead of books. I have a few self-published books as well, but zines are by far my best sellers and my main source of income. I do all of it myself. And then of course, on top of all of this, I do all the admin: answering emails, dealing with returns and lost packages in the mail, promoting my work, scheduling interviews for my podcast, etc. etc. I am basically always working. My “free time” is mostly spent thinking about ideas, reading about ideas, talking about ideas, and doing the generative behind-the-scenes stuff that allows me to have things to say and write about in the first place. Not to mention running my Instagram, which I do myself, and dealing with the various onslaughts of harassment and haterism that are frequently sent my way.

So, in my humble opinion, calling me a “grifter” is absolutely absurd. I am obviously working and what I’m selling are things I worked very hard on, both intellectually and physically. The underlying reasoning behind calling me a grifter is the idea that I’m tricking people into buying my writing, and I have to trick them because my writing has no intrinsic value. According to my detractors, I write only to make money (who cares about the 15 years or so that I wrote and published prolifically despite making no money and being poor af), and I have to trick people into buying my writing by being intentionally inflammatory and controversial, because my writing itself is basic, mediocre, and not very good. I wonder why — given that I clearly have many supportive readers and listeners who find my work important — the haters would say this about me.

Recently, writer Dr. Devon Price made an instagram post about my recent article on trans rights, youth, and living in a pluralistic world. In his post he stated that my article claims that trans teen suicide rates are overstated. This is a misrepresentation of what I said in my article, as I actually said nothing about trans teen suicide rates. I talked briefly about my thoughts on suicide risk, but made no claims at all about suicide rates. He then claimed that cancel culture is not a suicide risk, and pointed out that I have stated that it is. His comments were closed so I made an instagram story replying to his bad faith critique, saying that I never said transphobia is not a suicide risk (in fact, in my article, I write that it is a suicide risk), that I made no claim about suicide rates for trans teens being overstated, and that he is acting as if we are in a competition to see what produces more suicide: transphobia or cancel culture. I don’t think the two things are or should be in competition. I think they both increase risk for suicide, and many cencellation campaigns use transphobia and drive away trans people who rely on their queer and trans community for support.

He didn’t reply to my responses to his bad faith critique, but followed up with a second post about me. This post started by sharing a screenshot of an artist called N.O. Bonzo claiming that my partner and podcast co-host Jay is an abuser who sent legal threats to silence those speaking out about them. Devon then rephrases this already false accusation by saying that Jay sued their accusers. I have already spoken about the false accusations against Jay that recast normative relationship conflict as abuse, and the way those accusations have been spread all over the internet as an attempt to discredit Jay and I. You can read about that in more detail here. Jay did not abuse anyone. Jay also did not send legal threats to anyone or sue anyone, and the people who made the slander website about Jay never claimed that Jay sent legal threats or sued them. That detail was added somewhere along the way in the broken telephone game of cancel culture.

The tweet that Devon reshared on the first slide of his post, by artist N.O. Bonzo, was actually a post that was part of the doxxing that Jay and I underwent while we were touring our podcast, that led to my tires being slashed and shit being poured on my car. We only released the event address to people who bought tickets as an attempt to protect ourselves from harassment. Someone bought a ticket to leak the address and N.O. Bonzo was one of the self-described anarchists in Portland who shared the event address and spread false allegations about Jay and I in an attempt to get the event cancelled. The event went on as planned. We parked our car several blocks away from the venue as a precaution, but someone drove around looking for a car with Quebec plates, stalking us. N.O. Bonzo and others who leaked the event info and spread false accusations about us publicly celebrated my tires being slashed. Importantly, I have never met N.O. Bonzo or any of the other Portlanders spreading these lies. Neither has Jay. We live on the other side of the continent, in a different country. None of them provide any source material or evidence for the false claims they make about us.

So — Devon, who calls cancel culture “having mean posts made about you online” shares totally false, very serious accusations with no evidence, and chooses a post that was actually a part of a doxxing and stalking endeavour that led to my tires being slashed. After attempting to discredit me by making false accusations against Jay, he follows up in the next slides by pointing out that I have a Leftist podcast and haven’t read Lenin (gasp!). He refers to an episode of Fucking Cancelled called Identity Crisis: Historical Materialism Versus Identitarianism where I interview Jay about historical materialism. In the episode I talk about how Leftism can often feel opaque and intimidating to people who don’t have a theory background, and about how it’s important to normalize admiting what we don’t know. I jokingly say I’m using a strategy called strategical ditziness where I play up what I don’t know and ask “dumb” questions in order to draw out information, and also to welcome those who feel like they don’t know what Leftists are talking about into Leftism. Devon writes “CM was running a leftist podcast for 49 episodes before she even tried reading about what a Marxist Leninist is. Is this your leftist queen?”

Step one, discredit me with serious and false accusations that you have no evidence for. Step two, imply that I’m dumb bitch because I’ve never read Lenin. And step three? Promote your own book of course! In the caption Devon writes “if youre concerned by dogmatism and fractured individualism on the left, well so am I!! I just wrote a whole book about it, and unlike CM I was able to do so from an anti-racist and trans liberatory lens, and i actually did some research.” Devon apparently writes on similar topics to me, but he wants you to know that you should definitely read his work and not mine, because he is both more moral, and smarter than me. His work is anti-racist and in favour of trans liberation and he actually does research!

I don’t normally spend so much time dissecting what the cancellers say about me, but I thought this case was particularly illuminating and sheds light on the underlying reasons why people call me a grifter. People call me a grifter because they believe my work is not only morally bankrupt, but also intellectually empty. I’m not only a bad person; I’m a dumb bitch. The grift comes in because I somehow convince people to spend money on my writing when it is both morally bankrupt and obviously dumb. The only way I could get people to pay me for such garbage is by tricking them.

Jay and I were talking about this, and while we both frequently get slandered and called bad people, Jay doesn’t get called stupid. Cancellers frequently talk about how my work is shallow, vapid, stupid, plagiarized, mediocre, and obviously in no way smart or original. Over and over again, the cancellers laugh at the idea that I could call myself a writer or an intellectual. Devon describes me as a “cancel culture personality and zine seller” and as a “30 something zinester whose posts sometimes flop online” — the mockery and contempt are glaring. To give another example of the standard condescension, Twitter user “rechelon”, one of the self-described anarchists who thought it was really cool I got my tires slashed, writes: “We could sit here eviscerating Clementine Morrigan’s awful arguments and laughably bad politics. We could go through the laundry list of reactionaries and abusers she has platformed and is trying to normalize within the left. But at the end of the day she’s FUCKING BORING.” If you need more convincing, simply look up my name on Twitter or Google, and among all the insane accusations about what an evil person I am, you will find heaping loads of smug condescension, mockery, and belittlement.

Here’s the thing — this is standard, boring, regular sexism. I am smart. I am extremely well read. I think very carefully and deliberately about complex topics. My work is original. My work tackles some of the most taboo topics in “social justice” culture with nuance, grace, and compassion, as well as intellectual rigour — if I do fucking say so myself. I am a full time writer and public intellectual with a huge following. I have the pleasure of engaging with some of my intellectual heroes and they treat my ideas with interest and respect. Despite the endless insistence of the haters that I am shallow and dumb I receive constant feedback to the contrary.

I have always been smart and I have always been treated like shit for it because people don’t like receiving their intellectualism in a 5’1 package with huge tits and ample vocal fry. Once, sometime in my mid twenties, I was dating some guy who said to me “Oh you think of yourself as smart? That’s interesting. I wouldn’t really describe you that way.” Attempts like this to belittle my intelligence, whether from some guy I met on okcupid named Dan, or from a PhD and published author like Devon, have always come across to me as transparently sexist and insecure.

I work very hard at what I do. I love what I do. I’m very grateful to get to do it. I spent my entire 20s living in poverty, and the fact that I get to make a living doing what I consider to be my calling is not lost on me. I am grateful every day. I produce lots of material for free on my podcast, on this Substack, and on Instagram. I keep my zine prices low. I do my very best to work in a way that is encouraging to other writers. I share everything I know about self-publishing and I always uplift people with smaller followings if I feel moved by their work. I know what a big deal that is to people just starting out. I don’t feel threatened by other writers, even those doing work on similar topics, because I know that we each have something unique to offer, and because my political writing is only a means to an end — anyone doing work to generate an organized and effective Left that can stand up against capitalism is someone I back and will happily signal boost.

As much as I talk shit about Devon in this article for his transparent attempts to discredit me in order to promote his own work, I respect his right to write and speak and contribute to the discourse, even though I disagree with him on many things. I just wish that him, and other cancellers, could do so respectfully, without slandering their fellow writers, or mocking their intelligence. Discourse is meant to be generative, and respectful disagreement is a part of that.

Am I a grifter? Or am I just good at my job?

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Clementine Morrigan is a writer and public intellectual based in Montréal, Canada. She writes popular and controversial essays about culture, politics, ethics, relationships, sexuality, and trauma. A passionate believer in independent media, she’s been making zines since the year 2000 and is the author of several books. She’s known for her iconic white-text-on-a-black-background mini-essays on Instagram. One of the leading voices on the Canadian Left and one half of the Fucking Cancelled podcast, Clementine is an outspoken critic of cancel culture and a proponent of building solidarity across difference. She is a socialist, a feminist, and a vegan for the animals and the earth.

Browse her shop, listen to her podcast, book a one on one session with her, or peruse her list of resources and further reading.

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