Steven Crowder: the costly, crooked move of surreptitiously recording, then spreading

Quote from Lucio Buffalmano on March 15, 2023, 6:19 pm

Recently there was a new lesson on PU on the importance and benefits of being "straight".

Steven Crowder is a good case study of the price to pay for not being straight, or being crooked.

He is a conservative commentator -a flag behind him and a gun on his desk, you'd never guessed that much- and had a talk with the Daily Wire about potentially working for them -same business that hired Jordan Peterson-.

Crowder recorded the talk, refused to sign the contract, then published a video lambasting the Daily Wire but without making names.

Once it quickly became obvious who he was talking to, he came out in the open and mentioned the Daily Wire and the people in it.

PLUS, he disclosed snippets of the surreptitiously recorded telephone call.

This is the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nG9BFUEoy1I

My first reaction was "not cool" and "bitch move".

There are several elements that make this feel like a betrayal and a nasty-feeling move:

1. He's a conservative, snitching on other conservatives (ie.: there's the feel of "being in the same team")
2. They were previously on friendly terms
3. He recorded the conversation without saying anything (not too bad per se if he wasn't going to use it against them)
4. The conversation was supposed to be private (and making it public feels like a betrayal of a common, mutual understanding)
5. He disclosed snippets of that recording, not the full conversation (it raises doubts about him cherry-picking the worst)
6. He heavilymud-slinged
7. He didn't seem to have clarified in private first, but ran to disclose it (feels like he's looking to gain by raising a shitstorm for view and virtue-signaling)
8. The recorded bit wasn't even so damning after all, his speaking partner simply said that unknown recruits had to start as "wage slaves" before making a name for themselves, which may sound harsh, but makes sense and it's true

It barely matters what he Crowder even says, with all of the above, it feels like a rat move. And everything he says is going to be framed as suspicious and "not cool" no matter what.
So when he says "it's not about the money", it feels even more cheap as in "what the heck are you even complaining then -maybe it was about the money for you".

And the reactions and many of the most upvoted comments under that video show that many people felt the same, and that it cost him heavily: