The conspiracy theory alleges that a shadowy global elite conspires to control the world’s population, in part by forcing them to eat insects.
Kyle Ellingson for NPR
“I will not eat the bugs” became a meme on 4chan and emerged in conservative talk shows and political speech. But why has it gained traction? In this week’s Code Switch, Gene Demby and NPR reporter Huo Jingnan dive into the sprawling conspiracy theory behind it. Proponents of the theory lean on the anti-semitic trope that “global elites” have a plot to control the masses — in this case under the guise of climate change solutions — by forcing them to eat bugs.
Brett Neely helped edit this episode. Robert Rodriguez was our sound engineer. Thanks to Jerome Socolovsky for translating the Dutch speech and to Jerome and Kasia Podbielski for their voice overs.
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