the lucrative business of lunacy

I just read part of this book, Them: Adventures with Extremists by Jon Ronson, about conspiracy theorists. Some of the stories were interesting and some were weird and some were stupid. The most entertaining and ludicrous, however, was about this guy David Icke. Have you heard of him? Apparently, he makes a living speaking and publishing about the craziest theory I've ever heard in my life. It's hilarious. Details below, copied from an online article:

Most of [David] Icke's ideas are extraneous in terms of the purpose of this essay and as such will not be discussed here. ...immediately all that will be necessary is a brief overview of his beliefs and how he came into the public spotlight...

To suggest that David Icke's theories are unusual would be an understatement. Icke is the author of several books that (in a nutshell) essentially maintain that an elite cabal of shape-shifting, child molesting, human sacrificing, Satan worshipping, lizard-aliens are currently engaged in a conspiracy to centralize power and enslave the human race...

Icke's lizard theory is based on secondhand allegations that various elite families possess an alien-reptilian bloodline that allows them to transform between human and reptilian shapes. The Bush family are cited as being shape-shifters, as are the Rothschilds, the Windsors, the Rockefellers, Tony Blair, Hillary Clinton (not Bill), and Henry Kissinger, just to mention a few. Icke's lizard theory, like most of his theories, was inspired largely by previously published material written by people such as Alex Christopher and alleged CIA mind control victim Cathy O'Brien (later he would also incorporate the tales of Zulu shaman Credo Mutwa). O'Brien claimed that George Bush Sr. had told her that he was an alien and then transformed into a lizard in front of her...