It has to do with Religion and the Book of Daniel plus the Book of Revelations, aka Amillennialism theology about the End Times.

I can explain but those people are nuts. Thus to explain it adequately you have to talk about 4 different time periods and how people are being influenced by ideas from time periods they do not understand but they "borrow a tradition" from that time. Since borrowing it from multiple time periods is "meandering" it is confusing when read with words but it makes far more sense with visual diagrams which I will not draw. This is me trying to be simple in explaining people who are nuts.

-----

Scholars think the Book of Daniel was written during the Maccabees revolution aka 160 to 170 years prior to the birth of Christ, and 200 years before Christ's life. The Jewish people were fighting against the Seleucid Empire. The Seleucid Empire which had ruled over Judea for Centuries, ever since Alexander the Great, for the Seleucid Empire was created by Seleucus I Nicator one of Alexander the Great's Generals after his death.

Well during the time of Maccabees revolution there was a Seleucid Empire King known as Antiochus IV Epiphanes. He wanted all of his empire to worship Greek / Hellenistic gods and he forbid the worship of local gods. Well the Jewish people did a revolt against him (167 to 160 BCE for the revolt, Antiochus IV Epiphanes reign was 175 to 164 BCE, and he died during the middle of the revolt.)

Well the Book of Daniel is very historically accurate for some of the events for the Maccabees revolt but also is very historically inaccurate with how Antiochus IV Epiphanes died. Furthermore the book of Daniel is also historically accurate for events prior to the Maccabees revolt.

Thus scholars think it was written during the middle of the revolt, prior to the actual death of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Oh yeah if you are familiar with Hanukkah the Maccabees revolution is about this religious holiday.

-----

Well the subject matter of The Book of Daniel takes places hundreds of years prior to the Maccabees during the reign of Chaldean Empire Nebuchadnezzar II (the Chaldean Empire is also known as the 2nd Neo-Babylonian Empire. The Babylonian Empire and the 2nd Babylonian empire are completely unrelated and ethnically and culturally are different people with these two empires separated by 900 years. Chaldean is Greek for Stargazer.) Well Daniel has dreams and he tells prophecies of what happened in the near future (aka the past of the Maccabees revolution) and the future that is going to happen to Antiochus IV Epiphanes (the people who the Jewish people were revolting against.)

Well during these dreams / prophecies Daniel describes four kingdoms

Head of gold. And in this text this Kingdom is the Nebuchadnezzar II (The Chaldean / Neo-Babylonian Empire)
2nd Kingdom, the one of Chest and arms of silver.
3rd Kingdom, Belly and thighs of bronze.
4th Kingdom, Legs of iron with feet of mingled iron and clay.

Well these are going to be 4 different Kingdoms who will rule over Judea of mixed results. It was a textual thing signifying that even though this Maccabees revolution really and utterly sucks we been in sucky situations before and it is going to get better per the book of Daniel and its apocalyptic prophecies.

-----

It is unrelated directly but this essay about how we record time affects our culture and our imagination is very important to Maccabean Judaism and Early Christianity.

When Time Became Regular and Universal It Changed History
A revolution in time
Once local and irregular, time-keeping became universal and linear in 311 BCE. History would never be the same again

https://aeon.co/essays/when-time-became-regular-and-universal-it-changed-history

-----

Well American has had a lot of different varieties of Christian Sects. Some Christian Sects are really big in their apocalyptic thinking and they think time is preordained and exists in Eras. And thus before the rise of Christ, the anointed one, the time of the messiah things need to get worse before it gets better. I am going to skip how specific American Sects created this whole theology and became super convinced how the Left Behind is just around the corner.

Regardless specific people of specific Christian Sect / Tradtions have a whole End Times mindset and thus they say these bad leaders are going to be similar to the bad leaders of the past but also different and thus they will always be looking for someone to create a "One World Government" that is going to be very bad and prevent you from worshipping your religion much like certain Seleucid Kings did (but not all the Seleucid Kings), or certain Roman Emperors (but not all the Roman Emperors), or like Chaldean Nebuchadnezzar II (but there are good infidents like Persian Cyrius the Great who allowed these Jewish people to return home and to practice their local gods, aka the one true god of the Israelis.)

-----

God is comming to save these people and usher in the "fifth kingdom" according to this belief system. When things get shit such as a plague you see a rise of these beliefs and when things get less shitty people admit they are wrong and forget about them yet they still believe it is still going to happen in the future.

-----

Now not all of these conspiracy people are religious currently but often they were raised in a culture and tradition steeped with religion. Things change, yet these people are still nuts.