Most influencers presenting themselves as rich are not actually rich

Evidence

Star has also long contended with skepticism from fans and haters that his apparent wealth was a front, that his “luxury” was a ruse, that he was somehow duping us all. Obviously, influencer culture is rife with scammers pretending to be rich. Images of wealth and useless luxury, images of waste, are a means to generate and attract attention. Most of those presenting themselves as rich are, in fact, not rich at all. The belief that Star has merely been scamming us with his seeming opulence is, of course, understandable, when a major assumption of influencer culture is that there is something about them that is like you, that they are relatable, that their lifestyle is not merely desirable, but obtainable. — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory, 297

Categorization

• XREF: Feeds the reader’s Corpocene framework — the display of wealth as attention-generation distinguishes the influencer from the genuine capitalist-firm Star claims to be.
• CANDY: Broadly tweetable claim about influencer culture being mostly rented luxury and purchased audience.