Is Everything a Scam
Does it feel like everything online is a scam? What can we do about it?
It’s the holiday season and that means shopping for most of the world. As an artist, I’m always managing the truth that, in order to make this a business, I have to sell something. In some respects, I hate that. Art is about saying something, and the more I strive to commercialize my work, the less it has room to say anything. It’s a fine line to walk. I want my art to say, “this is a monster and it’s haunting, or beautiful, or both,” and I want a lot of my art to say, “my beliefs should tell me this is scary or wrong, but maybe it isn’t.”
On the other hand, selling artwork is cool. When someone buys something at a show and makes a real connection with me over the work, I feel like I did a good thing. When someone I’ve never heard of half a world away buys something on my website, I feel like I’m finding my crowd in ways I could never imagine without the internet. Added to that, the religious scholarship hobbyist in me says that the holidays are mammon’s time, and cash reigns supreme. Why shouldn’t I do whatever I can to carve my own little piece of the pie?
With mixed feelings, I dedicated a ton of time over November to flesh out Brimstone Studios’ website and to break Dylan’s Drink & Draw into its own domain. I set up a boatload of new products, I added print-on-demand prints, I created branded Dylan’s Drink & Draw merch, and I bought some advertising on Instagram.
Instagram is a place I used to love that became a place that exhausted me, which in turn became a place I begrudgingly use to do whatever I can to have some semblance of an audience. Instagram is riddled with ads for junk on Temu and other dubious sales platforms, and I dropped some of my hard earned cash on being one more of those ads. Why the hell did I give my money to Meta then? I don’t have a great answer to that.
I do my best to stay on top of scams. I’ve had a fascination with how con artists work for years. My interest in bad faith actors often overlaps with my interest in what faith is and how it works, and it’s easy to see a throughline from a willingness to believe in one thing leading us to believe in anything. It frightens me, and yet I still find myself in an ecosystem that is rife with scams and fraudulent behavior. If you’re not already aware, Facebook and Meta are both constant streams of con artistry, according to the AP. Along with joining endless knockoffs and dropshipped balonium, creating ads on Meta platforms puts me shoulder-to-shoulder with rip-off accounts that Meta is happy to keep running. But I ran the ad anyway.
The truth is that I had some desperation. Meta runs ecosystems I’m familiar with, ecosystems I open constantly even when they aren’t serving me best. I get feedback from family, friends, and fans about things I post on Facebook and Instagram. It’s enough to keep me there, even when my trust in these ecosystems is nearly gone. What adds to my frustration in handing my money over to run ads with Meta is knowing that online anything can be falsified. My advertisement received about one thousand more views than my other posts. It was supposedly shared several times. It has comments from seemingly real people. And, my website claims to have received hundreds more visitors than usual. But, if Meta lets bad actors run rampant on their platforms, what confidence should I have that they don’t throw bots at my ads to give me the warm fuzzy feeling that it works?
My sales were fine. Better than a normal Friday, but nothing to write home about. I didn’t spend a boatload of money on my advertisement because as trapped in the Facebook and Instagram hellscape as I am, all of this ran through my head as I paid them. Furthermore, I’m aware that even with effective advertising, I need to have a product consumers want. As I said in Cheesburgers Vs Sardines, I’m aware that I have niche work that isn’t broadly appealing. So perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised by middling sales. But if I’m going to pump a great deal of my money into getting eyes on what I offer, I don’t want to sink into scum.
Where can advertising dollars be spent that aren’t scams?
Maybe it’s not just me having a rough go of the shopping season, or 2025 for that matter. The AP says that Salesforce is also reporting that, “Order volumes fell 1% as average selling prices rose 7%. Consumers also purchased fewer items at checkout, with units per transaction falling 2% on a year-over-year basis.” Those numbers aren’t huge, and when I consider what they mean to me, I see sales closing with one fewer product per transaction and my overhead costs going up. I don’t have the funds to buy all American made goods. Tariffs are hitting all small sales like a brick.
What alarms me most about the AP’s article lies in the headline and the bulk of their news, “AI helps drive record $11.8 billion in Black Friday online spending.” AI is leading the charge on making online sales. It makes my spine shiver and my skin crawl. I don’t use so-called AI. Aside from the Reddit regurgitating slop at the top of Google searches, I hardly interact with large language and generative models being sold to us as Artificial Intelligence. These AI companies are hoarding our data, systemically stealing written works and artwork, and gobbling up clean water and energy. If that’s not bad enough, AI is largely built to please and create echo chambers more powerful than social media. It’s structured to keep you happy with the results of your inquiry, even if the results are wrong. Doing so makes you a happy customer as opposed to a more empowered, knowledgeable researcher.
When the likes of ChatGPT starts telling you what companies to trust, and what companies have good products, I start to worry the entire internet is a scam. I know it’s not just me. Search your favorite platforms and you’ll see the concern everywhere. Consumers and content creators alike have fatigue from systems and ecosystems they used to trust falling to dubious practices. Google recommends whatever some Redditor says paired with whomever paid the most to get your eyeballs. Amazon features products with fake reviews that are often knock-offs or forgeries. Your social media pushes you ads for crap from companies you’ve never heard of, and big box stores seem to step in stride. Call a Casey’s General Store and try to order a pizza and a pint of chocolate ice cream and you’ll be confronted by an AI that serves to only make customer service worse.
The internet has gone from a fun place to experience new things to a cesspool that relies on our addiction to convenience and feeds off our credulity.
I want to create good, challenging, and appealing artwork. I want to sell worthwhile prints and merchandise of that artwork. It should be as easy as that. Unfortunately nothing is that simple. There are a few avenues to advertise that are less tainted by Enshittification. A lot of outlets urge Influencer Marketing, which I can see some value in. While influencers, especially podcasters, and YouTubers, may be paid to shill dubious items and services, several of them can and will sponsor good artwork and creative content. Advertise where you see your audience going, after all. Emails, like this newsletter are paramount in today’s online hellscape. You choose to be here, and that means we’re having a conversation. Word of mouth is still the king of spreading the word. If you love something, your friends might too.
I hate feeling trapped. I hate feeling like everything is a scam. Rising costs, flip-flopping tariffs, fake products, fake accounts, and con artists are everywhere right now. But we don’t have to be trapped in these silos built by bad actors. As we face down the close of the year, and I am preparing a course to put myself out there the best I can, I am reminded that our power lies in our communities. I’m writing this in a coffee shop that does nothing but build community. I can easily taste and feel the value in what they sell, and I can utilize their space regularly. I’ve got to focus on being a coffee shop, so to speak. I need to create the best work and products I can while providing you space to be genuine and find others like you. Others like us.
Everything might be a scam right now, but together we’re less susceptible to bullshit.
Before I kick you to a cyberpunk song designed to fight the man I gotta tell you that the Brimstone Studios store has 15% off everything today. If you want to help me, this publication, or support artwork, grab something! If you want to be the cream of the crop, join the Brimstone Order!
Okay, go destroy the technocracy.
Short answer yes.
Longer answer hell yeah..