The juicy business of pro-Russian influencers made possible by the mass media

On social networks, it's easier to gain an audience than to make money. There are a number of solutions for monetising the audience - some more ethical than others. One of them, used by the vast majority of pro-Russian influencers, is B2P, or Business to Pigeons. This involves selling your own fantasies. For example, selling a tutorial on how to "Earn 20,000 euros a month without any skills", a method for "losing weight by eating at McDonald's every day" or "How to become a Don Juan when you're a Geek". Reading all this, it's hard not to smile and say to yourself that the average IQ has indeed dropped if people are prepared to pay for such nonsense. But don't be fooled into thinking that this kind of scam only works with a 'deficient' audience. It also works very well with well-educated and affluent people. The sales process uses conversion tunnels via the Internet. It starts with a story "How I became a billionaire" to attract an audience then takes them through what is known in inbound marketing as a conversion tunnel.

Inbound marketing is a marketing strategy aimed at attracting customers rather than seeking them out. It is the opposite of traditional intrusive and interruptive marketing techniques (known as outbound), such as phoning individuals to offer them solar panels, sending out mass e-mails about hearing aids, or piling leaflets in the letterbox. Inbound marketing, on the other hand, attracts an audience, answers the questions people are asking via articles, analyses and videos, and then converts these prospects into customers via automated conversion tunnels. Inbound is not interruptive; it guides a thought process.

Business to Pigeons will take advantage of a topical issue to attract an audience. On social networks, for example, there is an article entitled "Controlling your money without authorisation", according to which a global system akin to Chinese social credit is being put in place to deprive us of our freedoms and property. This article echoes a number of news stories that have struck a chord with many of us who are committed to individual freedom and property rights. Take, for example, the ease with which the vaccination pass was imposed in France. Given the near-panic instilled by the media and many politicians about climate change, it's not silly for some to wonder about the possibility of creating a climate pass that would impede our freedom of movement and restrict our property rights. This article links to a 'reinformation' website known in what some call the complosphere, which is often more like a con-sphere. Once on the article, just below the subtitle "Your savings and freedoms are at risk", you will find a link entitled "Take the following steps before it's too late - by Jim Richards, Former Pentagon, CIA and White House Advisor". By clicking on that link, you will be redirected to a lengthy text that alerts you to the total surveillance measures that are underway and that will be put in place, as well as to the "death of liquid currencies that will be the 3rd monetary earthquake". It's an absolute nightmare for small businesses and the professions in outlying France. On this anxiety-provoking page, we suggest that you "bet on assets outside the system" by obtaining a free report entitled "The system for emancipating assets". If you click to obtain the report, you will be taken to a page featuring a well-known YouTube influencer who gives alarmist economic and stock market information and, in his opinion, never fails to point out the imbecility of the sanctions against Russia. On that page, you can subscribe for 9 euros a month to the "Affranchis" letter, which will enable you to protect your savings and escape the control of the government, Europe and so on.

The process is always the same: an article, a post or an alarmist video on a topical subject, promising the end of the world tomorrow, a total economic crash or a return to the Middle Ages. The aim is to capture a worried audience who can't find answers to their questions. Then, this audience is lead into a "conversion tunnel" in order to detect those for whom this is a primary concern. They are made to believe that they are part of a very small elite, the enlightened, the emancipated ones compared to the rest of the population who are heading for the slaughterhouse. For them, and only for them, there is a solution to escape the chaos and even enjoy it! This solution is always to be found in a book, a tutorial, a guide, an online training course, a periodical letter or a recommendation to go through such and such an intermediary to buy gold, bitcoins, Chinese shares/bonds, etc.

This worried audience is essentially made up of French people who can no longer stand the progressive radicalism of the media. The media exclude from public debate anyone who doesn't want to subscribe to their credo on climate, gender or immigration. For the most part, these are French people who abstain from voting, who support the Rassemblement National or Zemmour. Faced with one radicalism, they oppose another - it's become almost a question of intellectual survival. It's hard to say whether all these Business to Pigeons influencers are pro-Russian out of conviction or out of obligation. Indeed, as I've written before (LINK), the influence strategy of "Russia Today France", the Russian state channel, consists of continually attracting French people despised by the mainstream, such as the Gilets Jaunes, people opposed to mRNA vaccines, independents and small entrepreneurs. The mainstream has isolated this audience to the point of captivity. "Russia Today" presents a worldview exaggerating France's weaknesses and promoting an imaginary Russian world, the last bastion of morality and beauty. The influencers who have embraced this new narrative, in direct opposition to the mainstream media, instilled confidence and hope. Some French people have begun to judge the sincerity of a news source on the basis of its ability to produce a narrative that runs counter to that of the mainstream media. Alternative media and influencers targeting that clientele not only have to produce content in opposition to that of the mass media, but also to conform to the new doxa imposed by influencers 'made in Russia Today'. There is an obvious mimicry effect, and even a new political correctness on social networks. So if you don't want to alienate this audience of 'Pigeons', you have to be pro-Russian from now on.

I know it's wishful thinking, but the French media should question their responsibility. Their willingness to exclude from debate many subjects that are anxiety-provoking but have paramount importance to a large proportion of the population, such as the decline of the West, the downgrading of France, immigration, Islam and gender, is one of the reasons for the success of those influencers. This form of authorised thinking, which everyone has seen in the French mass media, is a gaping wound whose terrible consequences we are only just beginning to grasp.