The grievance grifters

Some people wonder why I don't post more often on this blog.

The reason is simple: Mormon Stories says the same thing over and over. Episodes typically focus on anger, disappointment and grievances in various forms. Ultimately, the content is monotonous, boring and irrelevant, although each story is important to the individuals involved.

Not that the guests don't have reasons for their grievances. But who doesn't? It is a choice to take offense, get angry, lash out, etc.

I categorized this type of content as "grievance grifters" in my book, the Rational Restoration, because of the way these podcasters earn money by promoting grievances.

When we consider that there are over 30,000 units in the Church, each led by several presidencies consisting of ordinary people, none of whom applied for the positions, and none of whom are imperfect, it is astonishing that there are not far more complaints than there are.

Most Latter-day Saints recognize that imperfect people make mistakes and we choose to love and serve one another instead of taking offense and criticizing leaders who didn't ask to be leaders in the first place. We are pursuing the ideal Zion society that people everywhere purport to seek, although few seem to be willing to make the personal changes necessary, nor to implement basic Christian ideals of forgiveness and love and service.

We remember what Christ taught: "when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." (John 8:7)

The "grievance grifters" thrive on people casting stones.

And obviously, negativity intensifies when people obsess over it.

I like solving problems. I'm more interested in solutions than complaints. I like to focus on progress, improvement, enthusiasm, and the joyful essence of existence and prosperity.

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Clearly there are audiences for all types of content, including grievances.

Like much of the Internet, Mormon Stories and other "grievance grifter" podcasts profit by confirming the biases of their viewers, who are eager to find others who share their grievances. It's a great business model because there are people with grievances in every organization (work, religion, politics, science, NGOs, etc.), so there is no end of content and audiences to consume it.

AI generated example

This is a good explanation for the success of the "grievance grifter" podcasts.

"Anger makes you feel righteous by functioning as a moral disinfectant, transforming feelings of powerlessness into a sense of superiority, vindication and justified control. It acts as a ‘power’ emotion that reinforces self-worth and confirms your moral standards against perceived injustice, offering a comfortable sense of being ‘right’."

https://dailysceptic.org/2026/03/17/why-the-left-is-more-distressed-anxious-and-filled-with-hate-than-the-right/

That said, when someone brings a particular episode to my attention that I think deserves a response, I may choose to address it here.

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The "grievance grifter" podcasts, like other podcasts, implement common tools to manipulate crowd behavior.

Three tools, used by every leader in history who understood the game, work to persuade crowds:

Affirmation. Repetition. Contagion.

State a claim boldly, without evidence. Repeat it endlessly, in the same words. Wait for it to spread from person to person like a disease.

I've blogged about this elsewhere.