How many if you feel like you work with a dude like Jax raxxor/rapture or ThePastriachy? Smart guys but socially inept? Likely in technology, sales, dev ops, or some sort of UX? Anyways....I'd never ask anyone because I feel like my watching Phil is akin to my wife watching real housewives or temptation island but u also realize I'm just watching til I see the conclusion of the train wreck. When will this journey end ?
I have no problem acknowledging Phil has at least some whales that make decent money, possess something resembling a real life skill set and don't just rely on disability checks to pay Phil, but calling them smart? That's harder to do. Phil's fans are socially inept for sure, but there's no shortage of socially inept people online, and they aren't dedicating their lives/paychecks to something as meaningless as becoming a mod in Phil's chat or whatever. A lot of them have their own money sinks, but they're at least getting *something* out of those.
There have definitely been some supporters who are pretty social inept/naive, the only reason I wouldn't call them dumb is, whenever there's some kind of drama, they tend to see through Phil's lies and stop supporting. IMO, they feel like a significantly rarer breed these days because Phil has burned through so many of them. Lately, Phil has pretty much relied on the support of a few whales, but back in the day, while there were some whales that stood out, he was getting a fair amount of smaller donations from more "average" viewers, who legitimately believed he was struggling with taxes or whatever and just needed help to get by one month. And then, oh no, Phil has really bad luck, there was another emergency, but Phil said that big donation should cover the next month, so he's good again. But, oh no, right before his day off, unspecified emergency. They caught on and stopped supporting. It goes even faster with notable scams, like the Jasper reveal. I think that was a big wakeup call for some of those "average" supporters.
I doubt Phil pulls in many new viewers, and he certainly doesn't retain them, so that means anyone still supporting and whaling for him has been doing so for a long, long time. Through countless "emergencies" and scams, and if they still support Phil after that, while getting absolutely nothing in return, or sometimes openly mocked in the case of OiC, well, that's pretty dumb.
Totally agree with equating watching Phil to watching trashy reality TV, though, I definitely consider it my guilty pleasure.