🎪 Genuine Phonies: The Culture of Copying

Creative Carpetbaggers and the Evolutionary Cost of Faking Originality

This isn’t just about voice theft—it’s about how our culture canonizes the safe, forgets the radical, and gaslights the originators. Let’s talk about Genuine Phonies.”

“The Phonies Are Coming! The Phonies Are Coming!”

So through the night rode Paul Revere; And so through the night went his cry of alarm...—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

We all know the myth: Paul Revere galloped through the dark streets of Concord, warning colonists about the British. A poetic, patriotic moment baked into American lore.

But here’s the truth: it didn’t happen like that.

Revere never made it to Concord. He was detained by a British patrol. Samuel Prescott was the one who actually finished the ride. But Prescott didn’t rhyme as well as Revere in Longfellow’s poem. So he got left out.

This isn’t just a historical error. It’s a blueprint.

Culture rewards the story over the truth, the polished version over the raw one. We need myths that rhyme. We need heroes who market well. The rest? Forgotten.

Sound familiar?

🎤 “I Want My $2.00.” – Better Off Dead

It’s a strange feeling when someone borrows your voice, sells it as their own, and gets rewarded for being “authentic.”

This morning, I woke to an article alert. In my morning haze, I couldn’t remember when I wrote it. The reason was that I didn’t write it.

Now. I don’t have a large following or voice. I am the perfect target for cultural carpetbaggers.

We bleed. They bottle it. And sell it to vampires.

They mimic your tone, your rhythm, your worldview—and the world claps like it’s never heard anything so clever.

You sit there with a pit in your stomach, wondering if you’re crazy. Maybe it’s a coincidence. Maybe your voice was never yours to begin with.

But you know better. Because it’s not flattery. It’s erasure.

And it hurts like hell.

It’s one thing when your spouse dismisses your theory—then turns around and lectures his friends with it.

It’s another when your corporate controller steals your compensation model, claims it as his own, and walks away with a bonus.

You? You got a donut.

🏛️ Creative Carpetbaggers

Let’s zoom out:

Who invented electricity—Edison or Tesla?

Edison got credit for the light bulb. But Tesla gave us the future. One marketed his inventions with flair. The other died broke, misunderstood, and mostly erased—until the echo caught up with the origin.

Was it Shakespeare who wrote the greatest plays in English? Or Marlowe? Or the collective imagination of unnamed collaborators?

The point isn’t who wrote the words. It’s who got the spotlight. Who got forgotten in the footnotes?

We remember the brand. Not the blood behind it.

It’s the same in music. Melodies and rhythms originated in the African American community.

Elvis didn’t invent rock and roll—he sold it. Sanitized it. Corporations made millions.

He was the getaway driver for musical theft.

We’re left with auto-tune.

Even Christ’s message of love, humility, and justice—Love one another as I have loved you—became, over time: He who owns the gold, rules.

The pattern is clear:

When the truth is too raw, too real, or too revolutionary—it gets copied, cleaned up, and sold back to us.

Then it gets boiled down to marketing. Eventually, it degenerates into primal instinct ether.

🧬 Threshold Species (Yes, I’m Bastardizing the Term)

This isn’t just emotional—it’s evolutionary.

Original thinkers, misfits, artists—we’re the threshold species.

We carry the culture through transitions. We speak in tongues the system doesn’t yet understand.

We get mocked. Ignored. Until someone with better lighting borrows our voice and sells it back.

But they’re the ones who get the TED Talk.

🌍 Woke-Washed and Branded

Even movements for justice aren’t immune.

The Woke Movement started with urgency, awareness, and change. Then, it got hijacked, diluted, and marketed. Now, it’s a hoodie slogan—a checkbox on a DEI dashboard.

The same thing happened to language:

• “Shell-shocked” became “PTSD.”

• “Homeless” became “Unhoused.”

  
  

Does it help the person? Or soothe the speaker’s ego?

I grew up in poverty. I’ll tell you straight:

Stop with the euphemisms. Call it what it is. Because until we name the real origin story, we can’t fix anything.

👑 The Emperor’s New Brand

Hans Christian Andersen got it right.

A vain emperor, obsessed with image, parades naked through the streets.

No one dares say he’s naked—except a child. An outsider.

That’s cultural myth-making.

We elevate the hollow because we’re too afraid to name what’s real. We praise the emperor’s drip—until someone finally says: “He’s not wearing anything.”

Same with phony authenticity. Rebranded movements. The wave riders who echo originality while the source is ignored.

But every system eventually meets its child in the crowd. And when someone calls it out, it echoes.

🎩 The Greatest Show on Earth

Recently, Senator Cory Booker stood for over 25 hours on the Senate floor to protest political dysfunction—breaking the filibuster record.

He’s no saint, but at least he shouted when others stayed silent. In this fable, maybe he’s the child in the crowd.”

And meanwhile?

Humpty Trumpty voters are upset. Shocked by the consequences of their own choice.

It hurts when the sucker is you, doesn’t it?

Everyone bought a ticket to P.T. Barnum’s circus. Left, right, center—we all purchased a ticket - left, right, and center.

Because it wasn’t just about politics—it was performance. Trump put on a better show.

And when the lights came up and the smoke cleared, many were left staring at an empty center ring.

This isn’t about party lines. It’s about pattern recognition.

🕯️ Why Originators Are Ignored (or Ridiculed) While Imitators Get Applause

This isn’t just unfair. It’s predictable.

1. Cultural Lag: People fear what’s ahead of their time.

   • “The innovator is always the heretic… until the imitation becomes fashion.”

2. The Tall Poppy Effect: We cut down those who stand out—especially if they lack power or status.

   • Especially if you’re a woman. Or older. Or working-class. Or not in the club.

3. The Familiar Feels Safer Than the Real:

   • “The second person who says it is a genius. The first person who says it is ‘too much.’”

4. Power Validates the Echo, Not the Voice:

   • You say something profound. No one with power engages.

   • Someone with followers says it louder—and suddenly, it’s truth.

     
     

🔥 Let’s Just Say It Plain:

• Original thinkers are punished for being early.

• Copycats are rewarded for being loud.

• The system protects the echo, not the origin.

  
  

🌟 Conclusion: You’re Not Crazy. You’re Original.

You’ve been told:

• “Too much.”

• “Too intense.”

• “Too weird.”

• 
  

Then someone copies your fire—and gets called visionary.

This is what it means to be a Genuine Original in the Age of Genuine Phonies.

You’re not imagining it.

You’re not overreacting.

You’re just ahead of your time.

So name it. Call it out.

Build something so rooted in truth that they can’t repurpose it without getting singed.

And if you don’t want the credit? Fine. Oh - you copy cats - at least give credit where credit is due.

Me? I just want my $2.00.