Bill Gates calls Elon Musk’s embrace of far-right politicians abroad ‘insane shit’
Bill Gates calls Elon Musk’s embrace of far-right politicians abroad ‘insane shit’
Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist calls fellow tech titan ‘super-smart’ but guilty of ‘overreach’
Summary
Bill Gates criticized Elon Musk for his support of far-right politicians, including the UK’s Tommy Robinson and Germany’s AfD party, calling it "insane shit" and accusing Musk of destabilizing political systems.
Gates questioned Musk's focus on divisive politics while managing global businesses like Tesla and SpaceX.
Gates also expressed concern about wealthy individuals influencing foreign elections.
Musk has faced backlash for controversial actions, including a Nazi salute.
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I always forget Gates is one of the elite. Then I remember how ruthless and savage he was in the 80s.
Then I remember.
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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
Not to mention the destruction he did to computing as a whole. The nightmare of proprietary bullshit is something that he did not architect but he pushed heavily and lobbied for constantly. He had the position to push for interoperability from an early stake in computing, to set the stage for computers to have a strong precedent to work together. Instead he and microsoft made every effort to work against open standards. They would adopt open standards and extend them with proprietary extensions to intentionally ruin them. A lot of what is infuriating about modern tech can be traced back to precedent that microsoft set at his direction
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
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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).
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His philanthropy, while objectively good,
I wouldn't even go that far.
Say you have a crazy idea that education would be better if kids went to school blindfolded so they wouldn't be distracted. You then use your vast fortune to arrange for that to be tried out on a bunch of kids for a few years. It's a disaster. It sets those kids back for years. You realize it's a disaster, so after a few years you abandon the project.
In that case was your philanthropy objectively good? Or was it probably bad?
Those are the kinds of experiments the Gates foundation has done. Because Gates is so insanely rich, he doesn't have to bother with convincing people he has a good idea. He doesn't need to run his ideas by education experts or psychologists, he can just run with them. So he does, and he fucks shit up, then he leaves.
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I mean, if he means any of what he said here then we could use some of that right about now.
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And how he fought tooth and nail against generic versions of the covid vaccines being allowed, likely leading to thousands if not millions of deaths and many more getting sick in poorer countries where most people can't afford name brand drugs.
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Didn’t he short Tesla?
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Mr Gates actually has some power to do something about the crazyness and shittines of the world we live right now.
I don't discredit his philanthropic work, some of the things he does is actually good, neither that he calls out the insanity, any sane person should do, but, and this but is as huge as the Titanic, Mr Gates, is able to do something about it, and has been for a long time before shit hit the fan tbh, actions speak louder than words, specially the lack of action lmao.
If Mr Gates really feel this way, he should do something about it, he has the money.
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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 the 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.
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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.
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What are the rules on offering a reward and legal counsel/protection for someone providing verifiable information about things like how that anonymous Twitter employee said shit 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 would maybe convince someone to leak legit data or knowledge on.
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Maybe it's no coincidence that Twitter has been pushing all the "Bill Gates Microchip Vaccines" lunatics over the last few years, in order to discredit a rival.
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He actually does:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gates_FoundationMeanwhile 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 -
Mr Gates actually has some power to do something
But he won't
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He'll do something to make himself some more money
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Do what? Governments need to do more.
You're saying Bill Gates should meddle in international affairs to stop Musk?
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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
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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.
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Sorry mate this dumb factoid doesn't withstand even a moment's scrutiny.
If you donate $10 you might save $3 in tax but you lost all $10.
The Gates Foundation might use a few cents from that $10 for fancy dinners for Gates and his wife or whatever but there are auditors to ensure that the money is used for the people they purport to help. Their records are public and I can assure you that if there were any wrong doing whatsoever the internet would be afire with every detail.
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Nosferatu says Dracula has gone too far
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I feel like it's the other way around.
Dracula can at least fit into polite society.
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Count Chocula is my buddy
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We're safe now, we have a good boy up there who will rotect us against all those bad guys 🤮
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Every single billionaire is a policy failure. By hoarding that much wealth, they are literally bad people. But that doesn't mean they can't do good things, or even give away what they don't need, like the ex-billionaire Charles Feeney who redeemed himself and donated most of his billions, anonymously.
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Oligarch Wars
I never expected the end to be so boring: White Collar Apocalypse. Wait, what collar colour are billionaires?
Disclaimer: >!I don't actually think it's "The End"!<
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Preferably red...
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I think spoilers on Lemmy use triple colons:
::: spoiler Spoiler title hidden content :::Spoiler title
hidden content
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Horizon zero dawn did it better
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Queen Elizabeth's Twenty Foot Diameter Ruffle Collar
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Your spoilers are wrong.
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After "but" the nonsense has started...
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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.
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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.
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because maybe those american values are fundementally poisoned?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Bill Gates has also been riding an unearned “genius” appellation for decades. He didn’t make DOS. (His charitable work on vaccination is also questionable - iirc there were concerns over intellectual property rights)
The tide is turning against billionaires, and he’s just recognizing that Musk is making them all look bad.
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Gates had two lawyers for parents, one of whom served on a board of directors with the CEO of IBM. IBM had been continually fighting an antitrust suit with the government for years, so they knew they had to tread carefully with the operating system for their first personal computers. It's no surprise they hired Gates to do that work. Also, because of the antitrust case, they directed Gates to buy QDOS instead of buying it themselves. As for the contract that gave Gates a very sweet deal when it came to selling DOS to for non-IBM computers... I wonder if his two lawyer parents might have been involved in that contract.
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It's a compliment sandwich. You have to include the two pieces of compliment bread even if it's bullshit or else you'll be accused of not offering constructive criticism.
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Trump makes a variety of compliment sandwiches. It's hard to tell after a while just what kind of sandwich it is.
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If you want to nudge the ketohead narcissist, you have to pander to the ego.
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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.
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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.
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If he's so desperate to impress about something as inconsequential as gaming, what kind of lies is he saying about everything else ...
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I for one wouldn't rule out that, when Musk talks about working 12-hour days, what he really does is to let others work, while he sits on his ass tweeting and playing video games like the pathetic fraud that he is.
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Grindy shit. Call me when he wins a Quake 3 tournament.
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Put him on a starcraft tourney
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Did he do that for D4? I thought I heard he could actually play that, but he just absolutely n00bed up the PoE2 play.
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When you see him playing in video's he's playing.
He just uses other people to help level him up. I wouldn't really say that using someone to grind for you means you can't play. Him not being able to play would be him getting destroyed in the videos where he shows himself playing.
He just cheats to get his characters to a high level.
Edit: Another way to think of it... lets say he did this with Dota 2, and he gets up to the 2nd highest tier through his own play, and with cheating by others grinding his ranks. Then, he plays matches at that tier and consistently wins (and self performs) as much as you'd expect anyone at that tier. Can he play Dota 2? I'd say yes. Did he cheat? Yes.
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From the sounds of it he just sucks at all games. The one game we know he plays himself is a little puzzle game that's on the level of tic tac toe. It's just a dopamine generator.
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philanthropist
If he was one, he wouldn't be a billionaire
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One oligarch calls out another for brownie points with the public
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The Old Guard chastises the new
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"A bunch of pretentious old men playing at running the world, but the world left them behind long ago. We are the future!"
- Incredibly Evil Man
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I'll not trust Gates anyway
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Gates is a "lesser evil" billionaire but he advocated not to revoke the patents on Covid-19 vaccines during the height of the pandemic. I understand the need for innovation, but screw him for still being greedy in the face of immediate crisis. He is two-faced nonetheless.
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yeah he's so good... at fucking up the education system. seriously fuck this guy and his wife for what they did in the name of so-called education reform, he's just like the rest of them thinking just because he made a lot of money gaming the system he suddenly knows so much about everything. and fuck the united states for allowing these maniacs completely shape the country however they want.
I thought it was foolish that they allowed gates to do education reform, but then I thought it was insane they allowed reelon the troglodyte to make tunnels for his fucking explody cars. but that wasn't enough apparently so now they give him the keys to the entire kingdom.
un-fucking-believable.
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Pistols at dawn. One less billionaire either way.
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Actually we have a hydra situation here. There would be more billionaires if any of them died.
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Could be two!
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It's not insane at all. It sucks but it's completely logical. Musk is just protecting his capital as best he can within a global capitalist system.
It's like corporate "greedflation" during Covid. Of course they jacked up prices and lied about wholesale costs, thereby wildly inflating profits, because profit motives are what drive our world.
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It’s not insane at all. It sucks but it’s completely logical. Musk is just protecting his capital as best he can within a global capitalist system.
No, it's absolutely insane, and short sighted. You know how much his capital will be in the event of WWIII? We won't be spending money on overpriced EVs or sending rockets to outer space on scientific missions to study the universe. Assuming he doesn't get himself assassinated first by people that actually care about democracy. The absolute BEST thing to protect his capital is a strong spending class in the US, which would require the economy to not collapse. You gut social services, there is exactly one logical outcome and it is social unrest followed by either class war or civil war.
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Bill Gates is equally responsible for perpetuating wealth inequality
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Bill Gates’ foundation also donated money strategically in European countries putatively with the goal of influencing politics
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Yeah, no Billie. You've caused enough shit with Microsoft, making yourself a billionaire. you don't get to play the good guy now all of the sudden.
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Bill Gates really doesn’t want to get eaten. Remember he is not one of us, he is one of them.
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Right thing for the wrong reasons is still the right thing. We've got bigger fish to fry than him.
For now.
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I bet you he'd be great with some malt vinegar.
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He can avoid the oven by being more vocal.
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The deadweight loss of a monopoly means he destroyed even more than he stole. The best he can offer now is an example.
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This is exactly what he wants, for you to see him as a good guy billionaire. There’s no such thing. He is one of them not one of us, this is just PR and lip service
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If this is a tactical move purely for selfish reasons, its not a good one considering the power Musk now wields. I think this is genuine from Gates. Saying it out loud maybe is a degree of performance, but I think he likely legitimately finds Musk's fascist support a morally bad thing.
Assuming all billionaires are constantly playing some kind of 4D chess game is just as bad being overly charitable when a billionaire says or does something that could be seen as good. Remember, Elon Musk has put himself in the spotlight constantly despite it often times hurting him financially, his desire to be liked/beloved as a genius is also genuine its just fueling frequently terrible decisions.
That said, Gates is still an egotist and obviously pretty conventionally selfish (at what I'd describe as a pretty human level, if an average joe/jane came to have billions of dollars they'd probably treat the money in similar ways as Gates). Gates doesn't deserve his wealth and Gates is no genius either, I just don't think hes a fascist or a sociopath like Musk is.
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I don't think you're wrong in general, and I could give you a list of criticisms of Gate's actions even today. But if we're going to have wealth disparity, and we probably always will, I'd rather it be pragmatic self-interest clothed in good will than rabid self-interest clothed in freedom.
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I don't think that way, sorry
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Reminds me of comments made when Colin Powell resigned (ie “…bunch of fucking Crazies!”) [referring to the republican administration atvthe time].
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Colin Powell was one of the two Republicans I respected. Then he went on TV and lied to the nation to start Iraq 2.
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Only abroad?
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Billionaires say "we kind" again...
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Definitely worth listening to the Behind The Bastards podcast episode on Gates.
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See? Bill Gates is one of us! /s
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Well, Elon named his son by insane shit, so another successful diagnosis doc.
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He is probably just envious he didn't get to do it himself. Or that it doesn't fit his made-up persona.
