Bill Gates and the ‘new normal’ COVID-19 conspiracy theories: ‘it’s a new thing’ or nothing new under the sun?

Arby Ted Siraki, Malek H. Mohammad

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    1 Scopus citations

    Abstract

    The outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 in late 2019 and the subsequent lockdowns led to widespread conspiracy theories often involving one particular actor: Bill Gates. Adherents of these conspiracy theories believed Gates was behind the pandemic for some nefarious purpose, including chipping and/or eugenics. This was, however, no fringe sentiment: celebrities and other prominent voices articulated some iteration of the Gates-COVID-19 conspiracy theory beginning in 2020. Though the conspiracy theory appears to have come out of nowhere, it does have a (pre-)history. Some have tried to point to a single or recent origin, but it is in fact much older, more complex, and informed by real developments over the previous two decades. This article traces the origins of the conspiracy theory going back to its prehistory in the 1990s, describes the narrative in its various iterations and (per)mutations–along with Gates’s shifting role in them–and charts the dissemination of this dynamic conspiracy theory while examining some of its notable tropes.

    Original languageBritish English
    Pages (from-to)136-153
    Number of pages18
    JournalJournal for Cultural Research
    Volume27
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    StatePublished - 2023

    Keywords

    • Bill Gates
    • conspiracy theory
    • misinformation
    • online media
    • popular culture
    • SARS-CoV-2

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