dave, you may be missing a wider point here, about whether "firmly held beliefs" means anything. There was a book back in the 60s called Society of the Spectacle or something like that, which predicted that with the spread of mass media the "public face" that people show to the wider world would be more significant than the "private face" - "the sunny-dave nobody knows", that sort of thing - that people are assumed to have away behind closed doors.
I think that's proving prophetic. There are already Bafta awards for "constructed reality" programmes, a phrase that would have been meaningless 50 years ago
http://awards.bafta.org/award/2021/television/reality-constructed-factual
and now (thank you!) I learn that there's a university thesis on Katie Hopkins. Moreover, mainstream media are happy to hire her on the basis of this "public face", though Australia's government it seems are not.
(Did you know their PM Morrison believes he is doing God's work?
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/apr/26/scott-morrison-tells-christian-conference-he-was-called-to-do-gods-work-as-prime-minister )
Anyway, Hopkins is a prime example of someone who's succeeded in life as a purely public figure, validated by popular votes on reality TV and by academic study. God-botherers like Morrison may disapprove, but why should she change her ways? Her life so far has been extremely successful.