Bill Gates, at Odds With Trump on Virus, Becomes a Right-Wing Target

[Zorro]

The Microsoft co-founder turned philanthropist has been attacked with falsehoods that he created the coronavirus and wants to profit from it.

In a 2015 speech, Bill Gates warned that the greatest risk to humanity was not nuclear war but an infectious virus that could threaten the lives of millions of people.

That speech has resurfaced in recent weeks with 25 million new views on YouTube — but not in the way that Mr. Gates probably intended. Anti-vaccinators, members of the conspiracy group QAnon and right-wing pundits have instead seized on the video as evidence that one of the world’s richest men planned to use a pandemic to wrest control of the global health system.

Mr. Gates, 64, the Microsoft co-founder turned philanthropist, has now become the star of an explosion of conspiracy theories about the coronavirus outbreak. In posts on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, he is being falsely portrayed as the creator of Covid-19, as a profiteer from a virus vaccine, and as part of a dastardly plot to use the illness to cull or surveil the global population.

The wild claims have gained traction with conservative pundits like Laura Ingraham and anti-vaccinators such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Mr. Gates has emerged as a vocal counterweight to President Trump on the coronavirus. For weeks, Mr. Gates has appeared on TV, on op-ed pages and in Reddit forums calling for stay-at-home policies, expanded testing and vaccine development. And without naming Mr. Trump, he has criticized the president’s policies, including this week’s move to cut funding to the World Health Organization.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/17/technology/bill-gates-virus-conspiracy-theories.html

[pwb]

1. I hope Bill helps us come election time.

$$$$$$

[katmondoo]

2. I am sick to death of the right wing, may they all go to hell.

[Newest Reality]

3. They don't have to go there...

They make whatever they are in a living hell. No waiting necessary.

When the get "home" it will just be easier.

[roamer65]

4. Imagine what the world would be like if they just disappeared.

It would be a wonderful place.

[LiberalLovinLug]

5. Bill Gates used to be the enemy

Not really. But as an Apple aficionado, from the earliest days, Microsoft and the PC it ran on, was the Evil Empire. Now, I still love Apple products to this day. I'm using an iMac right now. But from what I've heard of Steve Jobs since, who could do no wrong at one point, and the post Microsoft charity work that Gates has been involved in, has flipped my respect meter.

[stopbush]

6. How long before the MAGA rubes start destroying their computers and devices

that are running MS?

[Initech]

7. It takes a special kind of stupid to believe in Q Anon garbage.

And anti-vaxxers can go lick toilet seats.