I notice Tucker Carlson is getting denounced as opportunistic and exploitive.
We all want to be appropriately opportunistic and exploitive (within ethical boundaries). We evolved to pounce on opportunities and to exploit paths to more status, power and resources.
ChatGPT says: Opportunistic gets tossed around like it marks a moral failure. In real life it usually marks a person who’s awake. You want to see openings. You want to move when others freeze. You want to capitalize when the window is there. That’s how careers move. That’s how cases settle. That’s how relationships form. People who never take opportunities end up bitter at those who do.
Exploiter gets the same sloppy treatment. Most people use it when they’re angry that someone else seized value they didn’t. Strip away the moral theater and the core idea is simple. We all want to extract value from situations. We all want to benefit from the terrain we’re in. You’re already exploiting the road system, the legal system, the marketplace, the trust of your clients, and the goodwill of your colleagues. That’s not sinister. That’s what it means to be a functioning adult in a complex environment.
The real line isn’t between opportunistic and non-opportunistic. The line is between doing it cleanly or doing it dirty. Between earning trust or burning it. Between sensing an opening and taking it with skill, or taking it with desperation and deceit.
Once you see that, the cheap putdowns lose their sting. The game becomes clear. And you get to choose how you play it.
