Character
Bill Gates
Bill Gates is a billionaire philanthropist whose Bugleverse portfolio is world population reduction — a cause he funds generously and declines to lead by example.
Arc history
Gates’s canon opens in January 2023, commenting on MSNBC about the trend of celebrities dying suddenly for the climate: “It’s apparent that we have too many people on the planet, and there is no sacrifice more selfless than ceasing your own existence. I have given many billions of dollars towards reducing the world population and yet I cannot find myself willing to undertake this selfless endeavor” (Celebrities And Athletes Suddenly Die).
irl: Riffs on the perennial conspiracy reading of Gates’s public-health philanthropy as “depopulation.” The quote is invented.