1)A confidence man/woman. The term was used by professional con artists in the 19th and 20th centuries to describe people in their profession. The Grifters, a 1963 noir fiction novel by Jim Thompson, portrayed a family of grifters who are all emotionally managed. . The characters describe being "on the grift" the way someone else might describe drinking and drugs. "I can stop any time I want," says Roy to his mother. .
2) (modern) A sell out in the
political opinion world. This noun is increasingly used by
progressives (and some
conservatives) to describe people such as Candace Owens and other opinion makers whose conservatism is seen as facile and inorganic, born mostly out of of a need for corporate funding than actual convictions.
1.) “As for working with a partner, he didn’t like that either. It cut the score right down the middle. It put an apple on your head, and handed the other guy a shotgun. Because grifters, it seemed, suffered an irresistible urge to beat their colleagues. There was little glory in whipping a fool—hell, fools were made to be whipped. But to take a
professional, even if it cost you in the long run, ah, that was something to polish your pride.”
― Jim Thompson, The Grifters, 1963
2) "He used to be an original voice, but after meeting the Koch Brothers, the radio host underwent a
personality change. Instead of nuanced analysis, he repeated well-worn right-wing
talking points, causing his colleagues to suspect he had been corrupted into being a grifter.
