He's had plenty of opportunities to settle the doubt that he isn't dead. All he has to do is walk to a window and pull back the curtains or invite someone inside. Some emails also disappeared from their site shortly after they raided the embassy.

My guess is that the powers that be will use his credibility to influence foreign and domestic elections as well as public opinion. They have a mouthpiece that an appreciable chunk of the conspiracy theory community is going to listen to, and they have the technology to make it look quite convincing. I'm still going to pay attention, but I'm going to pay attention while bearing these things in mind.

No it doesn't.