Do well known wingnuts believe the shit they're selling?

[Cyrano]

Or are they just mouthing rancid garbage that makes them rich?

Tucker Carlson, Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and countless others are out there, day after day, making big bucks by selling diseased concepts to fools.

Do they really believe the brain-rotting poison they spew?

If they actually buy into the disgusting, sick ideas they peddle, they are lost souls who are infecting humanity and who are badly in need of being banished to someplace where they can't infect others.

And if they don't believe it, and are doing it just for the big bucks, then they are demons filled with a horrible evil, who have escaped from whatever hell may exists in the universe.

I really can't tell the "true believers" from the greedy fucks. And perhaps it doesn't matter. The damage they're doing to civilization is the same regardless of their motives.

[JHan]

1. I've never been quite sure about Ann myself. She's still despicable though.

[Turbineguy]

2. Trump does.

He's been believing his shit for many years.

[Cyrano]

11. Trump only believes in being adored, richer, and "winning."

He really doesn't give a rat's ass about anyone or anything on Earth other than himself. He's among the sickest people to have gained power in the history of the world. And, like every one of them, he's destroying everything he touches.

[RKP5637]

3. I think a lot of it's about money, they've found a niche market and hatred sells well in America.

[BigmanPigman]

4. It is a question I have been asking too.

Glenn Beck was one of the first ones I wondered about.

[Hoyt]

5. Fact they say it, knowing ignorant white wingers will believe it, is enough to despise them.

[ret5hd]

6. I ask the same about religious "elites".

I think the answer (for both groups) is the reason for the alliance between the right and religion.

"Don't rat me out and I won't rat you out!"

[NanceGreggs]

7. Someone from CNN ...

... (I forget who) said recently that several of their Republican contributors do not believe what they're saying, but it's their job to put a happy face on Trump's idiocy and defend him as best they can.

[FSogol]

8. Here's a good article on the subject

No one actually believes Jim Acosta did anything wrong.

This is one of those situations where conservatives collectively pretend to believe something they don’t believe.

Pretending to believe something they don’t believe serves multiple purposes.
One, it signals tribal loyalty. Being willing to s

ay blatantly false things shows you put tribe over truth, and that is a critical loyalty test, as anyone who has studied cults can tell you.

Much more at

https://boingboing.net/2018/11/09/five-reasons-why-trumps-foll.html

[Mariana]

9. They are performers.

The job of the ones on teevee and radio is to gather an audience so the advertisers can pitch their crap. The job of the ones who publish books is to sell books. None of that requires that they believe the stuff they say.

[Aristus]

10. I heard a story about Rush Limbaugh. I don't know how much truth there is to it.

It goes that Limbaugh was originally politically middle-of-the-road until he saw how lucrative hate radio could be. And with Reagan's repeal of the Fairness Doctrine, on-air opposition was no longer required. So he jumped in with both feet and started making oceans of money.

I don't know if, at the core of the story, there is this sense of regret that Limbaugh locked himself into this vile, hateful persona. But I've never seen any evidence of it, however poorly-hidden. He seems to revel in the squalor of right-wing hate radio.

[Volaris]

13. He revels in the squalor of the hillbilly heroine and Rent-Boys he can afford

That's for damn sure..

[OriginalGeek]

12. my dad told me in the late 80s maybe early 90s

that he believed Limbaugh was just a performing clown and in it for the money. He found out people would pay him to spout off and ran with it. My dad didn't think (at that time) that Limbaugh believed in any of it except as far as it got him paid.

I believe he is conservative but he knows he's lying to his idiots everyday and he's fine with it as it pays him.

[Thomas Hurt]

14. they are true believers of the ideology and will lie through their teeth to support it.

and they make a nice paycheck too. a riff on Lying for the Lord

[TreasonousBastard]

15. The "true believers" are the most dangerous, since they won't easily give up, but...

doing it for the money is way below despicable. And even more dangerous while they are still popular.

Remember that Father Coughlin started out as a New Deal Democrat, and eventually had perhaps 30 million listening to his broadcasts.
Then he started cozying up to the Klan and got cozier with isolationist elements after Pearl Harbor. He battled Roosevelt to the point where Television and Radio licensing acts had to be passed to shut him up.

Finally, his bishop threatened to defrock him if he didn't shut up, and he lived quietly until the 70's, after quietly retiring in the 60's.

He was hell of speaker back then, even though his speech was poison...

[Freelancer]

16. They're just selling lamp oil on the steps of the Library of Alexandria

What could possibly go wrong?

[harumph]

17. Probably not at first -

but they must convince themselves of (at least) the "truthiness" or hate themselves. They build
a wall of compartmentalization around their beliefs. Or, it might be that they can use the $$ they make
to promote their philosophy which might be the pirate's code. If there's a Christian hell - they're on the
fastback. If not, we have only ourselves to blame for tolerating them.