Hi, I'm from Australia, sorry if this is the wrong place for this. I was reading this profile of Melinda French Gates, ex-wife of Bill Gates, here:
https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/gigantic-joy-melinda-french-gates-on-her-new-life-after-divorce-20250326-p5lmnp.html
I have a serious question for our American friends.
Melinda Gates is worth approximately US$30 billion apparently. And Mackenzie Scott, ex-wife of Jeff Bezos, is worth US$42 billion. They are both philanthropists, focused on women and girls' welfare.
If they really care so much about women's welfare, why didn't they put their money where their mouth is? This question goes for other progressive billionaires in the US too. If they, along with some of their friends had pooled their money together, they could have bought Twitter (and maybe even mainstream news organizations like The Washington Post).
Twitter was a hugely influential resource for the global center-left, and now it has become a source of far-right indoctrination. Elon Musk took a huge risk when he bought Twitter, but it has paid off for him and the global far-right - not in a monetary sense, but in the sense that they were able to take that space away from the left, which I think was their objective in the first place. The right wing seems to be so much more committed, and willing to spend their money to achieve their political objectives, whereas the left (or center-left, or just democracy-loving people) seem so lame in comparison. What gives?
Originally Posted By u/GrouchyInstance At 2025-04-11 11:47:43 PM | Source
There's a lot of discussion to be had about the corrupting influence of wealth, the difficulties of maximizing personal vs political impacts, and of the invisible results of philanthropy. One of the undeniably best things you can do for the world with money is fight infectious diseases, and few Americans will ever notice if you save millions in West Africa.
But, ultimately, the answer to your question, is that it is wrong on a fundamental level to do what the right wing is doing.
Don't misunderstand me. I am not saying the left needs to be civil or polite. I am not saying the left needs to follow the rules. I am not saying that anyone should take the high road for some vague moral reasons.
But the transparent tactics of the right wing propaganda machine are self-defeating in the long run. They literally cause more harm than good.
The only way to systematically develop a cult-following the way they have is to encourage naivety, fear, and distrust in your audience. You can't build an extremely successful disinformation campaign and then dismantle it. It takes on a life of its own.
You encourage your supporters to abandon thought in favor of emotion, and to accept the simple lies over complex truths, and the society becomes worse. It doesn't matter if the simple lies support progressive ideals. It doesn't matter if you somehow manipulate your way into power just to enact sweeping reforms. The damage is done. You win the battle and lose the war.
These tactics can only ever serve the interests of regressing society and centralizing power. If your followers are filled with hate and fear and they believe nothing but half truths and simple answers, then they will continue to vote for hate, and fear, and continue to believe in nothing but half truths and simple answers. You simply cannot progress society that way.