When Liberal Influencers Play the Same Game

My Thoughts

For years, leftists were told we were being “too harsh” on liberals. We said their politics amounted to little more than branding, condemning the right for corruption and cruelty while quietly upholding the same systems. We said their outrage at conservative “dark money” was selective, their moral posturing thin.

Now, Wired has confirmed what many of us suspected: a major liberal dark money group, the Sixteen Thirty Fund, has been secretly funneling thousands of dollars a month to Democratic influencers, with contracts barring them from disclosing who paid them. The same people who mocked conservatives for propping up their online culture warriors were doing the same thing behind closed doors.

And we can’t forget the context. While Palestinian children were being starved in Gaza, too many liberal influencers worked overtime to deflect, to reframe, to dilute the reality of genocide. They weren’t mobilizing outrage against empire, they were soothing their audiences, minimizing, or outright ignoring the scale of U.S.-backed violence. All while cashing checks from a machine that demanded their silence and loyalty.

We can look at the easy example of David Pakman, who was one of the recipients of these funds, who defended Israel’s current genocide, via liberal Zionism, as it was unfolding after October 7th. When the story broke about liberal influencers receiving these funds, Pakman’s response was:

“The left needs to fund independent creators the way that the right does.”

There was no remorse, no accountability, and no honesty. There were just excuses. Liberals do not care about justice, they do not care about opposing fascism, and they do not care about stopping genocide. They care about making money and monetizing the outrage created by the suffering of the GOP while they sit idly by.

This isn’t about purity politics, it’s about honesty. If your outrage at the right is real, you don’t mirror their tactics in secret. If your care for justice is real, you don’t take hush money while genocide unfolds. Leftists were right to call liberals out for their complicity. Because at the end of the day, the problem isn’t just who’s cutting the checks, it’s the empire both sides keep defending.

We won’t forget and we won’t excuse their actions. The left, the REAL left, begins at anti-imperialism.