For me the easiest tell is the up front, unprompted, and unsolicited declaration of nonpoliticalness. When someone takes the time and expends the breath to announce how nonpolitical they are, what follows is almost always a rant about how everything/everyone else is too political these days, and that of course leads into something between status quo advocacy and outright reactionary/regressive sentiments for some fabled time before those wicked politics were visible to the nonpolitical ranter.
People that are hostile to service workers. Some just want to take some ideological stand against tipping when the service worker doesn’t really have a choice and needs those tips to survive in the current unjust system in a way where ideological purity gestures toward that service worker just look like being a greedy and sanctimonious asshole. The worst of such people will actually declare, shamelessly, that they believe that service workers don’t deserve a living wage. The implications of that are worthy.
I may get shit for this, but I’ll say it anyway: this hair and beard combo, seen on living people. I have yet to meet anyone in person with that look that wasn’t a chud.
(If one of you is a comrade with that look, I am sorry in advance for the prejudice and if I ever meet you in person I will atone by buying you a drink or something.)
In my experience near the Bay Area, there’s enough spillover of Silicon Valley tech cult bullshit for “spiritual” to mean a number of terrible things from eugenics-fixated “Secular Calvinism” to prophecies of nerd rapture or escape from The Simulation™. And a lot of them have MLM-style grifts to sell you.
yeah it can mean anything, and you dont have to be held accountable for anything your peers/leaders do, but you can claim credit. “yeah man read this book it changed everything for me. yeah the author is in a sex scandal but its about the practice its not a religion we dont obey him, we just buy all his books and do what he says.”
That reminds me of another sus flag: “(grifter) is nonpolitical and is just a lifestyle coach that wants you to practice self-improvement!”