Microchips delivered into human beings through vaccinations. 5G cell phone towers radiating viruses onto people. Intentional crashes of the power grid in red states like Texas. If you ask conspiracy theorists, the threads in all of these nefarious plots against mankind lead back to one man: Microsoft mastermind Bill Gates.
But why? How did Gates become the first, last and only name in the supervillain game to a certain subset of the population?
A new study conducted at UCLA is endeavoring to unravel exactly why misinformation spreads, and why Gates has so frequently become the figurehead for evil worldwide takeovers. After all, he’s not the only tech billionaire out there. In fact, it is questionable whether he’s even the most well-known anymore.
After all, he’s not garnering headlines from trying to launch himself into space like his peers Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. In fact, Gates lays pretty low compared to those two.
Timothy Tangherlini, a professor at the University of California-Berkeley, says parallels can be drawn between modern-day conspiracy theories and Old Norse sagas, his personal area of expertise.
"The narrative structures are of course the same – as humans growing up in cultural groups, we've become incredibly adept at telling stories that help explain how the world works, and why it looks the way it does," Tangherlini told USA TODAY. "Gates in some ways acts as a 'perfect villain' in contemporary society, as he appears in so many different contexts – and could be cast as a villain in each of those contexts.”
Some of those contexts include his association with Big Tech, his foundation’s work with public health and, of course, his governmental contacts – an absolutely essential component for any supervillain worth his salt, to be sure.
Of course, for misinformation to strike a chord, it must contain at least some kernel of truth buried beneath all the rich fictional storytelling, something that can be verified that gives the story some real-world credibility.
Gates’s pet projects include the fight against overpopulation and trying to turn the tide of climate change. So naturally, Gates must be looking to depopulate the world by sterilizing its residents secretly through a forced vaccination. If that seems like quite the leap, rest assured that it is. And it’s not one without historical precedent. It has its roots in the centuries-old fear of witchcraft, according to an analysis by The Guardian.
During the witchcraft scare of the 19th century, people believed a witch could brew a potion that caused miscarriages.
Population sterilization.
People also believed that witches snatched babies, a pretty direct parallel to the QAnon movement’s panic over sex traffickers moving kidnapped children through secret (non-existent) tunnels under D.C.-area pizza restaurants.
Perhaps Gates has a secret underground lair in the basement of the Alamo.
So why do the same stories keep coming back with fancy new bells and whistles?
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People look for someone else to blame when they feel persecuted or encounter unexplained misfortune to help them make sense of it, according to social psychological research by Manvir Singh, a research fellow at France’s Institute of Advanced Study in Toulouse.
Singh says often the scapegoat is someone who the person doesn’t trust.
"On the basis of that research, then, fighting misinformation would entail creating more trust, reducing feelings of persecution or anxiety, minimizing the impact of misfortune, and providing more plausible explanations of it," Singh told USA TODAY.
And the current mistrusted person du jour seems to be Bill Gates.
For what it’s worth, Gates has denied the accusations, commenting during a June 2020 call with reporters where he announced funding for COVID inoculation in low-income countries.
"I've never been involved any sort of microchip-type thing," Gates said. "It's almost hard to deny this stuff because it's so stupid or strange."
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