There’s a strange pattern that shows up everywhere power is abused: In narcissistic families In churches that protect predators In corporations that exploit workers In guru culture and high-ticket coaching The people or systems doing the most harm are often the same ones talking the loudest about how much they “give back.” That’s not an accident. That’s a strategy. I call it the Philanthropy Shield: the use of visible charity or “giving” to deflect criticism, mask exploitatio

In every era, people have searched for guidance, healing, and transformation. And in every era, there have been those who discover that helping people is far less profitable than appearing to help people. This is the engine of the modern guru economy. We live in a world where sincerity is optional, but optics are everything. A world where charisma outranks competence, and where the most successful “helpers” are often the ones who deliver the least actual change. They don’t se

In the last posts, I zoomed in on gurus and funnels. This time, I want to zoom out and say the quiet part out loud: We didn’t just build a predatory industry. We built a predatory civilization that markets itself as benevolence. We live in a world where: exploitation calls itself opportunity, control calls itself safety, apathy calls itself neutral, and almost every system sells you careful optics instead of actual care. That’s the Optics Economy at scale. And once you see it

There’s an economy we almost never name, even though it runs underneath everything from politics to self-help to “make $10k/month” funnels. It’s not the free market. It’s not capitalism vs socialism. It’s the Optics Economy. Not the economy of value— the economy of how things look. Who looks generous. Who looks successful. Who looks “called.” Who looks like a hero. And in that economy, you can run a naturally predatory business model so long as you keep the optics shiny enoug

If you’ve spent any time in the online business world, you’ve heard the line: “You’re just one funnel away…” One funnel away from quitting your job. One funnel away from saving your marriage. One funnel away from finally not feeling like a failure. The man most associated with that promise is Russell Brunson, co-founder of ClickFunnels and author of the “Secrets” trilogy: DotCom Secrets, Expert Secrets, and Traffic Secrets. This post is not a takedown of him as a human being.