There’s a conspiratorial aspect around guys like these and their apparent playing of the masses like a fiddle, and putting on theatrical and eccentric media facades for their financial gain. It has to be true to an extent, but then again, I think they really are just dumb, like really, really dumb.

I tend to think if it was just calculated self interest that drives their action, you wouldn’t see them going this far, too risky for their own self interest. He’s a great beneficiary of the status quo and only needs play pretend enough to make sure it continues and yet here he risks having to live with real consequences.

This would be irrational behaviour for someone with any self awareness or master plan. Surely at no time in history has “clown”, or “village idiot” been such a well compensated position but he’s risking that which keeps him so comfortable for a very ill conceived fantasy. That tells me that that even if he thinks he’s cleverly poking the bear, he doesn’t know quite how much danger he’s inviting.