Is it his ego that makes him utterly stupid, or is actually stupid?
I don’t think Lloyd is academically stupid. I definitely don’t think he is as smart as he thinks he is.
does his ego believe that people will not sus that these people are free subscribers who don't receive anything at all?
Combining your two questions, I think we must look at past behaviour to determine current and future behaviour. Over the past 10-12 years lloyd has slowly, and then not so slowly used his platform to control the narrative, control behaviour to conform to his, to quieten down anyone who speaks against him. He has a couple of tools to do this:
1. Cult speak: most exjw’s, especially when they leave, hate WT. In order to gain favour all anyone has to do is propose behaviour that directly conflicts with WT policy/doctrine and you instantly have agreement. For example - WT shun and everyone hates it. Lloyd has said things like “don’t tell me not yo take my brother to court, well I’m sorry I’m not WT”…..trigger emotional brain reactions and people who don’t know Lloyd well may think “I don’t want yo be like WT so take them to court, yes lloyd you are right” (paraphrased heavily). That person is no longer thinking about the facts, laws, common sense of the actual matter, they are thinking about not being like WT. “I am just trying to fight a cult that has hurt all of us and these nasty people are hurting my ability to do that”
This is not my best example of how lloyd weaponises the “I’ll agree with whatever as long as it’s 100% the opposite of what WT is” crap that he has been doing for years” (see also “you have a JW mindset dribble that he goes on with) but I hope it makes sense.
2. Public persona: Lloyd was a happily married man with two children, making just enough money to provide for his family. He was so genuine, wholesome and sincere….It’s easy for the community to support someone with that persona. He also was very careful as to where he insulted people so his supporters didn’t see too much of the real lloyd and controlled this by deleting things that didn’t fit with this persona. Inflating the patron numbers helps to create the popularity persona and the “people stand with me in solidarity so get on board with me” image.
Combine persona and cult speak together, and you see his constant calling for “solidarity” and “support”. He is “fighting WT” so people want to support that because they are emotionally charged and hate WT. They want to stand with someone in solidarity as they see him as the best hope of achieving the fall of the tower.
And with the success of this formula his ego has been boosted and boosted. He arrogantly knew that by speaking against people who didn’t agree with his view on WT issues was going to gain him support and silence the opposing opinion.
His ego “knew” that he could do a livestream outlining how disgusting Kim Silvio’s actions were toward him and that she should be condemned and outcast from the community because “I don’t support an organisation that covers up CSA on a massive scale” (not his exact words but to that effect)….
The formula he has used over and over again with the community for whatever reason didn’t work this time and he slipped. His ego brought out his arrogance and his victim hood.
Which brings me to his end game. Fear. He stats to show the community that he is the victim and threatens legal action. Many exjw’s don’t know the law. Many can’t afford to defend themselves even if they have done nothing wrong. People freeze or fly….either proving lloyd with lloyd with the outcome he desires.
The livestream failed, he then went to plan B, threats of legal action. This failed. What was he to do. His ego could not take the hit or the loss of control. He had to win and so he had no choice but to commence proceedings. His ego could not take the beating from those speaking the truth.
So yes, lloyd does think that he can do all the things he has done and been successful. Because he has behaved like this for so many years which has built his ego into “untouchable” territory in his mind.
He also knows that there are people who don’t research, listen to whatever’s served to them in his shit sandwiches and realises that all he has to do is wait for the next generation of exjw to arrive who will want to show “solidarity against wt” which is far more important to them than a “bunch of people trying to talk about a man who made personal mistakes but is fighting the tower and doing good work in saving people”
Wouldn’t you want to support someone with over 500 patrons and 109k supporters? He surely is the best chance of taking down the tower, right?” People don’t read the fine print. They see the large number (the larger the better right) and want to stand with him.
Everyone wants to back a winner. Lloyd thinks that makes him a winner.