# Do you think David Icke is 'genuine' or trolling the public? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 13, 2018, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-david-icke-is-genuine-or-trolling-the-public/817835 "2018-07-13T09:46:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Asympotically\_fat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Asympotically\_fat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asympotically_fat)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2018, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-david-icke-is-genuine-or-trolling-the-public/817835/21 "2018-07-16T00:48:50Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > I have no idea how much money David Icke makes, but [here’s a source](https://en.mediamass.net/people/david-icke/highest-paid.html) that claims his net worth is $245 million. > > There are others who peddle loony conspiracy theories who seem to have done quite well for themselves, namely Mike Adams (of Natural News infamy) and Alex Jones. > > It seems possible such folks suffer from a degree of mental derangement, believe a good portion of the nonsense they promulgate, yet are good businessmen _and_ delight in putting one over on the gullible public while raking in the cash. The website you quote is satirical. His Wikipedia page states that he earned £2 million from book sales between 1998-2011 and with his other sources revenue he certainly doesn’t seem to be ready for the poor house just yet. FWIW [here’s a video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=208&v=H0P38WEHaWU)of David Icke pouring scorn on an estimate that he’s worth $10 million and showing his relatively modest car and flat (though I would say a nice flat in the right location in the Isle of Wight could be worth £500K). When David Icke effectively destroyed his relatively-successful career as a well-known sports journalist in the UK, there’s no way that he could’ve known that, if he developed his rantings down new insane avenues, years later the internet would provide a medium for him to reach a global audience which could translate in to a a fairly lucrative career in its own right. He’s a lunatic, but a lunatic with the presentation skills and “eveyman appeal” of someone who once presented the BBC’s flagship sports programme. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2018, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-david-icke-is-genuine-or-trolling-the-public/817835/22 "2018-07-17T18:45:31Z")
> [@Asympotically\_fat](#): > > The website you quote is satirical. His Wikipedia page states that he earned £2 million from book sales between 1998-2011 and with his other sources revenue he certainly doesn’t seem to be ready for the poor house just yet. FWIW [here’s a video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=208&v=H0P38WEHaWU)of David Icke pouring scorn on an estimate that he’s worth $10 million and showing his relatively modest car and flat (though I would say a nice flat in the right location in the Isle of Wight could be worth £500K). Icke made a lot of money doing speaking tours during the First Era of the Wingnut (the early-to-mid 1990s). I don’t doubt that the Internet has actually depressed his earnings, though, since you don’t need to go on tour to see him speak. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_Peebles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Jim\_Peebles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_Peebles)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2018, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-david-icke-is-genuine-or-trolling-the-public/817835/23 "2018-07-17T19:40:33Z")
I am not an Icke-theologist, but I would guess: he had a genuine mental breakdown and got better. He is too organized to be still mentally broken. I suspect he then found he could make money saying nutty things, which people find truth in, if you simply replace “is” with “as if”. He might say “this world leader is a reptilian”, which is nutty. But many sane people agree “it is as if this world leader is a reptilian”. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2018, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-david-icke-is-genuine-or-trolling-the-public/817835/24 "2018-07-17T19:48:24Z")
> [@Jim\_Peebles](#): > > I am not an Icke-theologist, but I would guess: he had a genuine mental breakdown and got better. He is too organized to be still mentally broken. I suspect he then found he could make money saying nutty things, which people find truth in, if you simply replace “is” with “as if”. He might say “this world leader is a reptilian”, which is nutty. But many sane people agree “it is as if this world leader is a reptilian”. Yes, this is why they run pictures of world leaders through forty photoshop filters and post about how this show their reptilian nature. It’s because they are sane people saying “it is as if world leaders are reptilian”.:rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2018, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-david-icke-is-genuine-or-trolling-the-public/817835/25 "2018-07-17T19:52:15Z")
> [@Jim\_Peebles](#): > > I am not an Icke-theologist, but I would guess: he had a genuine mental breakdown and got better. He is too organized to be still mentally broken. Being organized is not indicative of sanity. In fact, it’s a feature of many psychiatric disorders, such as obsessive-compulsive disorders and psychopathy. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_Peebles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Jim\_Peebles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_Peebles)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2018, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-david-icke-is-genuine-or-trolling-the-public/817835/26 "2018-07-17T19:59:51Z")
> [@naita](#): > > Yes, this is why they run pictures of world leaders through forty photoshop filters and post about how this show their reptilian nature. It’s because they are sane people saying “it is as if world leaders are reptilian”.:rolleyes: It’s metaphorical. I would translate it to: “look this world leader is evil, and doesn’t treat other people like a mammal treats others of its pack, but instead like a reptile would treat others of its kind.” ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_Peebles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Jim\_Peebles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_Peebles)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2018, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-david-icke-is-genuine-or-trolling-the-public/817835/27 "2018-07-17T20:03:53Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Being organized is not indicative of sanity. In fact, it’s a feature of many psychiatric disorders, such as obsessive-compulsive disorders and psychopathy. True. I was ruling out him having something like “disorganized schizophrenia”: > **[Disorganized schizophrenia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disorganized_schizophrenia)** > > Disorganized schizophrenia, or hebephrenia, was a subtype of schizophrenia prior to 2013. Subtypes of schizophrenia were no longer recognized as separate conditions in the DSM 5, published in 2013. The disorder is no longer listed in the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11). > Disorganized schizophrenia was classified within ICD-10 the existing classification, in practice, until January 1, 2022, as a mental and behavioural disorder, because the classification wa... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-david-icke-is-genuine-or-trolling-the-public/817835.md?page=1)