TWO weeks into his boycott of Sainsbury’s for the crime of having security cameras at the tills, TV presenter-cum-conspiracy theorist Neil Oliver has decided to get into business himself.
The GB News host is leaning into the criticism levelled at him for essentially using his TV slot to go on lengthy rants about whatever subject he’s decided to become an expert in this week – wildfires, Covid vaccines, climate change. Who knows? Not Oliver.
What he does know is how to monetise it.
And that is why the world now has the merchandise it never asked for in the form of Neil Oliver’s smug mug on a T-shirt – alongside the slogan “conspiracy Gandalf”.
Proudly announcing his new line of clothing in a video on social media, Oliver says: “I haven’t seen this before … oh, I love it, I love it already.
First T-shirt from the new merch unwrapped. You can find t and more here, https://t.co/etZpb4wVfV pic.twitter.com/iscZ2kxZYj
— FatBellyFilms (@Fatbellyfilms1) August 27, 2023
“Look, that’s what they call me online. Not always people who love me either. Conspiracy Gandalf.”
He then puts the shirt on and announces: “Conspiracy Gandalf, that’s me.”
The video ends with a bizarre shot of a love heart containing Oliver’s name being shot with an arrow and bleeding. No, really.
Predictably, some of the worst people you know have already heaped praise on it.
“I want one of these. I want it here and I want it now,” fellow GB News host Laurence Fox wrote.
They have to support each others’ grifts, we suppose.
Does the “conspiracy Gandalf” name even make sense? Considering that JRR Tolkein’s wizard was famously wise, that part seems out of place.
“Conspiracy”, however, definitely fits.
Oliver has, after all, developed something of a repertoire of conspiracy theory monologues.
The GB News host didn’t take the Covid vaccine because he “didn't think I needed it”. And he “wasn't worried” about the pandemic – which he says was actually just all “about control of people's behaviour”.
In Oliver’s bright estimation, Covid can’t have been that serious because Boris Johnson and his lackeys in No 10 Downing Street had access to all the data and partied on anyway.
He extends the same logic to the climate crisis – which he is adamant is a "lie".
There is no climate crisis. The alleged climate crisis is the most expensive and devastating lie of all time.
— Neil Oliver (@thecoastguy) July 14, 2023
“They only pretend concern for the climate because they know there is no crisis,” he said of government officials travelling by plane to a climate summit.
Oliver’s argument boils down to: if the Tories in Westminster aren’t concerned, why should we be?
No wonder people think he’s lost the plot.
