Now, everyone is joking about his words, but do not you remember that people, who used to believe him, rushed to buy Bitcoins selling their property? You need alway to think, using your own mind.
What people are you talking about? He actively promoted scam ICO's and people lost tens of thousands of dollars as result. If he actually made people buy Bitcoin, that would be a good deed, but nope, he wanted quick money at cost of innocent people. John McAfee is untrustworthy and doesn't deserve the "respect" people attribute to him. Guess what he will do during the next mania......
He is also close friends with Roger Ver, which doesn't surprise me one single bit. Scammers like to be surrounded by like-minded people.