I think Tom legit believes in the politics/message, but he's more than happy to dip his toes into the entrepreneurial world. I'm not sure if that makes him a hypocrite or not.
One of the reasons I never got full into RATM is the lyrics. I don't share those views and it can be cringey. But I had enough of a punk rock attitude at least as a kid to get into some of it, and the music was pretty awesome.
I guess I chose to believe I was raging against a different machine
I've said it before, but I met Tom after the second ever Audioslave show at a meet and greet. I was really excited to meet Chris but he got spooked by this super annoying and overbearing DJ lady and he bailed out the back. Tom was super nice, gracious, and seemed absolutely genuine. Like he fully appreciated everyone coming out and took the time to sign stuff and talk to each of us.
He absolutely ripped too, I was shocked. I didn't think much of him as a guitarist beforehand but he was an awesome showman and could play his ass off. The show was awesome and obviously Chris was a rock god and killed it. And the drummer was probably the loudest and hardest hitting drummer I've ever seen. I lost a little bit of hearing after that show it was so loud (in my young and dumb days).