A court case involving right-wing opinion maker and operator of the website "Infowars" Alex Jones revealed just how lucrative the business of political charlatanry can be.
For his claim that a 2012 school rampage in Newton was a government staging for tougher gun laws, Jones was fined a total of $49 million. That sum sheds light on the Trump supporter's net worth, which is estimated to have taken in $70 million last year alone. In addition to donations and advertising banners for erection aids, the money comes from his online store, which sells his fans everyday items (3 tubes of toothpaste for $22 on special offer) or hocus-pocus ("Super Male Vitality" drops for $52.45) at absurd prices.
In this aspect, parallels with leaders of the protest movement against Corona measures in the FRG suggest themselves. While the masses are justifiably concerned with defending democratic rights, many figures at their head are primarily concerned with themselves. Instead of serving the people, they have embezzled collected donations for their own lavish lifestyles. Michael Ballweg, among others, is accused of this by the cops, but also by critics from their own ranks.
Another business model to pull money out of the pockets of the masses comes from the political ideology of these people. Using various buzzwords, they forecast the collapse of imperialism. But instead of seeing this collapse as a desirable prerequisite for building the new, socialism, they stir up doomsday fears. A collective solution is not in question for them anyway; they center only on the individual, who - well equipped - must assert himself against his fellow men in the competition for scarce resources. The water filters and freeze-dryers supposedly needed for this are then available in the online stores that Alex Jones and Michael Wendler advertise.
