Hemant Mehta is commenting on Jimmy Bakker’s guest on his show, Tom Horn, who thinks asteroid Apophis will hit the Earth in 2029, resulting in the release of the Antichrist, and while the red flags are flocking like maggots to a corpse in this unremarkable case, I had to admire Mehta’s commentary:
I’m not sure why [Horn’s] worried when Bakker has a “Silver Solution” that allegedly cures viruses…
I guess we should be happy that in the future, even nutbags will get their shots? Whatever it takes to convince them vaccines are real. (One of these days, I need to learn Bakker’s secret to always being able to find guests so insane that he gets to look like the smart one on the panel.)
Bold mine.
That commentary stuck in my brain for a couple of days, and I’m thinking that it’s because it’s a symptom of the competition that is taking place in an arena of madness.
Look: “Prophets,” much like everyone else, want to stand out and win admiration, which translates to wealth and power. In this contest, differentiation is one key. But, when the arena is purely imaginary, there are few, if any constraints on where you go. Go nuts. All it has to do is resonate with the audience.
Or at least so you’d think.
Which makes me wonder if Bakker is a step ahead of his nuttier guests. By presenting as relatively sane and >eeek!< trustworthy, he may be actually scooping up some adherents and their money that might have otherwise flowed to his guests.
And that’s not bad pickins’ for a disgraced preacher with multiple felony convictions, a grifter who flamed out. Not bad at all.
