Paid thinkers exist. Corporate shills. Mostly higher level executives are paid thinkers. The term "thinking" may be exaggerated.
Government shills exist too, Ruzzia, China, Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, India, US, UK, ans others have them to one extent or another. These shills operate either as members of their nations military, government, intelligence apparatus, or their state run Mafia (Ruzzia in particular on this point), or they work for contracted corporations, like the company Edward Snowden was working for when he discovered the data that he decided to whistleblow for us, Booz, Allen, Hamilton , or like Cambridge Analytica or Black Cube.
Shilling on the internet should be illegal, sock puppets are a form of social control, and an aspect of social engineering, anything that contributes to brainwashing should be made illegal to combat all the dis/misinformation and propaganda problems we see on the Internet and media.
All the "paid thinkers" I know spend their careers explaining how every ongoing problem is not their fault, and that the people above and below them should have foreseen the problems that have only just now occurred.
My dad used to say "solving problems, that's what I get paid the big bucks for." He was a teacher.
I mean not everyone's thoughts deserve to be paid for....
raises up hand
I'm an academic philosopher, and I approve this message
No it's like FOSS vs a paid service, they have to pay someone for the right to use their own brain.
