Bill Gates calls Elon Musk’s embrace of far-right politicians abroad ‘insane shit’
-
I'm not sure what you mean. I'm not American, and I don't place much value on enormous wealth accumulation. I'm just acknowledging that there is a difference between gaining enormous wealth with a hefty leg up from family wealth versus doing it from scratch, like growing up in poverty for example.
-
You can't get that amount of money without exploitation. If you start from 0 it just means you have to actually work for it but end result is still the same.
-
had he actually cared, he should have demanded and funded research into them to either prove his point or fix the problem.
-
Yeah, he cares so much about “polio” and hiv which is fine and all, but he is trying to justify Trump ffs, who is, and was, a covid denier! Calling out musk is the bare minimum, and its just so crazy that nobody has done so yet
-
Do what? Governments need to do more.
You're saying Bill Gates should meddle in international affairs to stop Musk?
-
I agree. If you started from 0 and got rich you became a class traitor.
-
The biggest argument against philanthropy is that they get to deduct it from their taxes, so instead of us as a society collectively deciding what to do with that money (provided you had a working democracy, of course), the billionaire gets to decide that. And some of that philanthropy money actually goes to causes that further undermine democracy. Just because something is a charity doesn't mean it does good. You can deduct donations to the federalist society or the heritage foundation, for example.
-
I can only repeat what I said before I anther comment. I'm not defending Gates. Of course there are things he should be criticised for. You bring up one example here.
What I am saying is, that you should not judge him on what he did four decades ago, but how he is acting today.
-
you should define the word rich better in this context. Personally I have started to think word "rich" as negative thing, someone who has more than they need at expense of others, but I dont think that is very common way to think.
-
You're right, the term is very subjective. The lower bound for me is owning multiple properties, owning a business and making money from the labour of others.
-
-
I would call 2020 close enough to today to call it the modern era. So he IS being judged for who he's recently shown himself to be
-
Of course there are things he should be criticised for. You bring up one example here.
An example with a body count exceeding that of almost all other people on earth. That's worthy if far more than just "criticism".
If he had been poor and responsible for the same number of avoidable deaths, he would be rightly considered one of history's greatest monsters.
What I am saying is, that you should not judge him on what he did four decades ago, but how he is acting today.
And today he's acting like a goddamn monster who values property and profits over thousands if not millions of human lives. That's what I'm judging him for today.
-
Didn’t he short Tesla?
-
Americans equal money with power, the more power you have, the more value, etc. That is basically it.
-
The insane shit is probably Musk's obsession with trying to impress gamers with his (pretend) gaming skills. Having characters in Diablo 4 or PoE2 being clearly played by other people, while acting like this is his work alone.
-
To be fair there are plenty of ruthless greedy people with zero morals out there but Musk is far more successful than any of them so something has to differentiate him. He might not be intelligent enough to recognise what a crigerworthy loser he is but let's not pretend he isn't smart.
-
not by accident, but certainly by luck, and then you can argue whether someone makes their own luck or not, musk hit the jackpot of being at the right moment at the right time and having the right skillset.
There are plenty of alternate universes out there where he became a nobody after paypal.
-
Dont mistake his philanthropy for some form of altruism. He setup the Gates Foundation for tax avoidance pure and simple. The fact he tries to do good with it is a side affect.
-
Mate, he is on a very self destructive spiral doing those nazi salutes at the inauguration. That's not a smart move. He's let his fantasies get the better of him. If he was really smart he would shut the fuck up about politics. He has everything, And consequently he values nothing.