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

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

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 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.

Gates, 64, the Microsoft co-founder turned philanthropist, has 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 Gates has emerged as a vocal counterweight to President Donald Trump on the coronavirus. For weeks, 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 Trump, he has criticized the president’s policies, including this week’s move to cut funding to the World Health Organization.

https://news.yahoo.com/bill-gates-odds-trump-virus-121907837.html

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. Gates should announce he is going to stroll around the Robert E Lee medical building in Lexington VA

... tomorrow at noon.

... and then not show up.

Or perhaps the Fox Studios in NYC.

[SheltieLover]

3. LOL

K&R

[Windy City Charlie]

2. Yes

They target anyone against them and come up with crazy conspiracy theories. There's no basis to them, but somehow each of these theories grow legs.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

4. Grow legs because cult members, conservatives & religionists are v prone to confirmation bias. . nt

[underpants]

5. His speech was obvious and had to be attacked

He was stating what was already known. Obama had a whole mechanism built on experience and expertise. This HAD to be attacked because it shows Trump for the miserable everything that he is. Include conspiracy theories to draw in the seriously flawed.

[jimlup]

6. Bill Gates is a right winger just sayn'

what the fuck have we come to??????????????????

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

7. No he isn't.

Do you just assume that because one is wealthy they're a right winger?

Franklin Roosevelt and the Kennedys were wealthy and they're liberal icons.

I happen to live in the Seattle area. A few years ago Gates was part of an unsuccessful move to get a state income established in Washington.

[jimlup]

10. well pretty much whatever, he is

from my perspective. Just say'n

Further more, I've worked for him and I know some stuff. Yes, he is. The problem is that the spectrum in the US has become so skewed that even slightly NOT EXTREME is viewed as left wing. but honestly in the classical definitions. No It isn't.

[Cha]

8. Say it all you want.. we've come to appreciate anyone

who's fighting trump on killing people with his sadistic stupid clusterfuck.

[pnwmom]

9. No, he isn't. In his retirement, all he's been working on are ways to give his money away.

And he's vowed that only a very small fraction of his fortune will go to his three kids. The rest will go to the foundation.