Bill Gates calls Elon Musk’s embrace of far-right politicians abroad ‘insane shit’

[ragebutt@lemmy.dbzer0.com]

80s, 90s, and a few years into early 2000s. Gates ruthlessness lasted decades, destroyed many businesses and lives, and is mostly whitewashed thanks to his philanthropic efforts and a few reddit amas and some secret santa participation

Reminder despite every donation he has made his net worth is higher now than it ever was and this has essentially always been the case. His philanthropy, while objectively good, is a measured pr effort that does not impact his overall obscene wealth and basically never has

[nocturnalengineer@lemmy.world]

Money's great and all, but where exactly would his spending help right now?

Trump's brown-nosing billionaires have trillions between them, let alone foreign governments actively supporting the destabilisation of western world.

The far-right has the market cornered on information & infrastructure control currently. Even Gates' would struggle using his money to influence any meaningful change. It's depressing.

Attacking their fragile egos of Nazis... Now that's free and plentiful.

[tja@programming.dev]

Actually we have a hydra situation here. There would be more billionaires if any of them died.

[tja@programming.dev]

So is every US taxpayer.

[notmyoldredditname@lemmy.world]

What are the rules on offering a reward and legal counsel for someone providing verifiable information about things like how anonymous Twitter employee said happened.

Tbh I don't really believe that report, it's too easy to just write shit up like that anonymously, but I don't doubt there is some shady shit going on that money wouldn't maybe convince someone to leak legit data or knowledge.

[skunkworkz@lemmy.world]

And if he starts meddling in politics he would just prove the nut jobs right. Nothing would change since the people that need convincing already believe he is pulling strings. They would vote for Trump either way.

[grass@sh.itjust.works]

would have been nice to just fly some machine gun drones across that line of billionaires at the inauguration and just unload on them

[fattony@lemm.ee]

See? Bill Gates is one of us! /s

[goodthanks@lemmy.world]

I have to question the judgement of Bill Gates when he calls Musk "super-smart". Maybe if Musk started out with no money, that would be fair in some sense. I think he was just lucky and unencumbered by ethics or self-doubt.

[flyingsquid@lemmy.world]

Wasn't he kissing Trump's ass a week ago?

[psx_crab@lemmy.zip]

You can't become the richest man in the world and the most powerful billionaire in the world by accident, even if you start with a golden spoon. Most millionaire child will just spend the rest of their life being spoiled and unconcerned with the world, very very few spend their money helping others and building society, but him? He spend his time and money resurrecting nazi and making those dystopian scifi real. That's some insane dedication right there. Smart or not, dude is dangerous.

[random_character_a@lemmy.world]

Well, Elon named his son by insane shit, so another successful diagnosis doc.

[x00z@lemmy.world]

He actually does:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gates_Foundation

Meanwhile Muskyboi donates mostly to organizations that align with his business interests, such as those doing AI and STEM stuff:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musk_Foundation

[gedhrel@lemmy.world]

If you want to nudge the ketohead narcissist, you have to pander to the ego.

[jonne@infosec.pub]

He's still pushing 'intellectual property' as part of his philanthropy. The creators of the Oxford vaccine wanted to open source it and give it away for free. Gates opposed that and he got his way (partly because of the influence of the Gates Foundation). The delays this caused probably killed millions of extra people in the Global South (not sure if anyone ever did the maths on this).

[floofloof@lemmy.ca]

Unlike the US taxpayer, Microsoft has a choice. But as far as I know, Bill Gates isn't involved with MS any more.

[m33@lemmy.sdf.org]

Sarcasm ?

[goodthanks@lemmy.world]

I think he is dedicated, dangerous and awful. I just don't think he is smart. I've known people who achieved wealth, started successful businesses etc. They had domain expertise and ambition. But they also neglected and fucked up other critical aspects of their lives (like their relationships with partners and kids). I didn't consider them to be smart. In my mind, smart implies a well roundedness, and the capacity for self reflection, and empathy. Musk just has the personality traits, and family wealth, to enable him to "succeed" in our current society.

[siegfried@lemmy.world]

Maybe if Musk started out with no money, that would be fair in some sense.

Why is this american obsession on weighting the value of men with the money they made? Musk is an idiot regardless of his money or how he made it.

[viking_hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com]

And how he fought tooth and nail against generic versions of the covid vaccines being allowed, likely leading to thousands of deaths and many more getting sick in poorer countries where most people can't afford name brand drugs.