Not that she’s gone at all conspiratorial in her thinking.
China wrote a white paper leaked to me to control the world via controlling all biodata by 2025. My best analysis is that CCP is in league with Big Tech and using Bill Gates (who is a willing asset) to flow billions to corrupt our leaders and institutions to comply with all this. https://t.co/pWrexxtsfy
Colin Day, I suspect it is because Gates, like J. K. Rowling, is rich. Therefore, he is evil and must be stopped.
Don’t get me wrong, I have my complaints with Bill Gates and Microsoft, but these conspiracy theories are ridiculous. What has happened to people? Is there something in the water? Alien rays that scramble neurons to destroy critical thinking? Too much internet?
I think it’s not that he’s rich full stop, it’s that he’s rich and does the Gates Foundation thing. See also: Soros. Maybe the point of including Gates is as a retort to those who point out the link between antisemitism and paranoia about Soros. “No I’m not, I hate Gates too!”
Conspiracy theorists unintentionally adopt a lot of ideas from works of fiction, in large part because conspiracy theories are usually about constructing a narrative where the CTer is a brave hero standing up to the nefarious forces arrayed against him or her, when ordinary people lack the courage or intelligence or skills to do so.
For example, “false flag attacks,” while they have happened in real life, are relatively rare, whereas in fiction they are so common that you’re almost surprised when the instigating attack in the first act ISN’T revealed in the third act to be a false flag and/or “inside job.”
In fiction, problems are rarely the result of vague, systemic and impersonal forces, but rather deliberately created by nefarious masterminds. Billionaires are frequent choices for villains (see, e.g., Lex Luthor, many Bond villains) because they are presumed to have the resources, intelligence to pull off a massive conspiracy, and the ambitious and ego to attempt it.
So most anti-vaxxers aren’t content with just believing that the medical and scientific community is mistaken — in such obvious ways that a Google University graduate can uncover — about the safety and efficacy of vaccines. Some of them probably even realize the dubious logic of that. So they construct a narrative where the experts are in fact complicit in a scheme to manipulate and defraud the public. Such a massive conspiracy needs a mastermind, and billionaires make an obvious (in their mind) choice for that role.
Gates is a billionaire and famous even by billionaire standards, so he makes for a “likely” candidate. I suspect Ophelia is right that the philanthropy helps, too — the fact that Gates has demonstrated a concern with improving society as opposed to only accumulating more wealth means it’s easier to construct a motive for him to engage in some twisted “I shall turn humanity into placid drones FOR THE GOOD OF ALL under my benevolent rule” fashion.
Conversely, I suspect that Elon Musk tends to be excluded from these theories because the Very Online People who spread conspiracy theories tend to think of Musk as the cool “rebellious” billionaire who is standing up to the system, rather than a secret puppetmaster.
I suspect that Elon Musk tends to be excluded from these theories because the Very Online People who spread conspiracy theories tend to think of Musk as the cool “rebellious” billionaire who is standing up to the system, rather than a secret puppetmaster
… which is ironic, given that he’s the one more likely than any of the others to go all Hugo Drax on us.
Honestly, as I said the last time one of her outbursts was featured here, I’m wondering what’s caused her behavior to change so much. Did something in her mind break from the “death recorded” embarrassment? Does she have a brain tumor? I honestly wouldn’t be surprised at this point.
Gates is a billionaire and famous even by billionaire standards, so he makes for a “likely” candidate. I suspect Ophelia is right that the philanthropy helps, too — the fact that Gates has demonstrated a concern with improving society as opposed to only accumulating more wealth means it’s easier to construct a motive for him to engage in some twisted “I shall turn humanity into placid drones FOR THE GOOD OF ALL under my benevolent rule” fashion.
Bur it’s perfectly cool and natural for the hyper-rich to fix the rules for their own selfish benefit, no benevolent rule offered or expected.
Was Naomi Wolf a Linux user in the 90s-00s? Otherwise, why the Gates hatred?
Colin Day, I suspect it is because Gates, like J. K. Rowling, is rich. Therefore, he is evil and must be stopped.
Don’t get me wrong, I have my complaints with Bill Gates and Microsoft, but these conspiracy theories are ridiculous. What has happened to people? Is there something in the water? Alien rays that scramble neurons to destroy critical thinking? Too much internet?
I think it’s not that he’s rich full stop, it’s that he’s rich and does the Gates Foundation thing. See also: Soros. Maybe the point of including Gates is as a retort to those who point out the link between antisemitism and paranoia about Soros. “No I’m not, I hate Gates too!”
Conspiracy theorists unintentionally adopt a lot of ideas from works of fiction, in large part because conspiracy theories are usually about constructing a narrative where the CTer is a brave hero standing up to the nefarious forces arrayed against him or her, when ordinary people lack the courage or intelligence or skills to do so.
For example, “false flag attacks,” while they have happened in real life, are relatively rare, whereas in fiction they are so common that you’re almost surprised when the instigating attack in the first act ISN’T revealed in the third act to be a false flag and/or “inside job.”
In fiction, problems are rarely the result of vague, systemic and impersonal forces, but rather deliberately created by nefarious masterminds. Billionaires are frequent choices for villains (see, e.g., Lex Luthor, many Bond villains) because they are presumed to have the resources, intelligence to pull off a massive conspiracy, and the ambitious and ego to attempt it.
So most anti-vaxxers aren’t content with just believing that the medical and scientific community is mistaken — in such obvious ways that a Google University graduate can uncover — about the safety and efficacy of vaccines. Some of them probably even realize the dubious logic of that. So they construct a narrative where the experts are in fact complicit in a scheme to manipulate and defraud the public. Such a massive conspiracy needs a mastermind, and billionaires make an obvious (in their mind) choice for that role.
Gates is a billionaire and famous even by billionaire standards, so he makes for a “likely” candidate. I suspect Ophelia is right that the philanthropy helps, too — the fact that Gates has demonstrated a concern with improving society as opposed to only accumulating more wealth means it’s easier to construct a motive for him to engage in some twisted “I shall turn humanity into placid drones FOR THE GOOD OF ALL under my benevolent rule” fashion.
Conversely, I suspect that Elon Musk tends to be excluded from these theories because the Very Online People who spread conspiracy theories tend to think of Musk as the cool “rebellious” billionaire who is standing up to the system, rather than a secret puppetmaster.
… which is ironic, given that he’s the one more likely than any of the others to go all Hugo Drax on us.
Honestly, as I said the last time one of her outbursts was featured here, I’m wondering what’s caused her behavior to change so much. Did something in her mind break from the “death recorded” embarrassment? Does she have a brain tumor? I honestly wouldn’t be surprised at this point.
Bur it’s perfectly cool and natural for the hyper-rich to fix the rules for their own selfish benefit, no benevolent rule offered or expected.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/inside-the-koch-backed-effort-to-block-the-largest-election-reform-bill-in-half-a-century