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this post was submitted on 08 May 2025
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Sure, but Bill Gates is as benign as it gets.
He’s an Edison, he’s a Carnegie, he’s a Rockefeller. He’s a robber baron like countless before and that on its own is enough of a condemnation.
Dude single-handedly ruined many, many foss and other software projects because he couldn’t buy, bully, or otherwise get obscenely rich from. He would use windows’ reach to kill projects. “Windows ain’t done until wordperfect won’t run”
He played dirty to get his money and now that he’s “won” and has enough money for his family to be generationally wealthy for ever he’s donating amounts that don’t cut into his oligarch lifestyle. Guess he hired a good PR team though, cuz everyone seems to forget what he did to get so filthy rich.
Not to jump down your throat over it - I just hate that he’s managed to erase the shitty things he’s done by donating the money he got by doing shitty things.
You’re exhausting.
Yes, all billionaires are bad, just like all mountains are big. But some mountains are bigger than others. Amazing concept, I know.
👅👢
Calling a billionaire “benign” then getting pissy when I give evidence to the contrary is weak shit.
Also, so long as we’re trading insults i think ill go with “Fragile Ego Piss Baby who thinks some boots don’t taste that bad”
They said "as benign as it gets" which is not the same thing as "benign." To give evidence to the contrary, you must find a more benign billionaire than Bill Gates.
Tata (volume), Scott(uncontrolled), Carnegie (proportional) all beat Gates.
Evil isn't graded on a scale, bud.
So Bill Gates is as bad as Hitler?
Bill Gates is as bad as Bill Gates. You're trying to get a gotcha without understanding what I said.
Genius.
if you can't compare evils then there is no reason for someone to try to become less evil.
What?
Lol, dude thinks any of these billionaires give an iota of a fuck how we plebs rank them 🤣
This thread is so embarrassing.
The real world isn't binary, bud.
Why does society need to have billionaires? Why can't (e.g.) Bill Gates just participate in society based on his own merits like the rest of us?
It doesn't. In an ideal utopian society there wouldn't be billionaires.
But, given the reality that billionaires do exist, I'd rather have them using their accumulated wealth on disease curing/prevention than them just sitting on the money or using it to actively fuck over entire populations (like Musk has been doing).
That doesn't mean Gatws or Buffet are *good billionaires *, it means they are less bad.
Shades of grey exist. Nuance is a real auseful ful thing.
I'll reiterate the point from my other comment. Value judgements are a waste of time, energy, and our voices.
Whether or not Bill Gates is worse than Elon Musk is just as important as to whether Tom Cruise is a better actor than Leonardo DiCaprio. Neither value judgement is worth my breath. It's a pointless exercise.
We are reaching a critical junction in our timeline where these billionaires can not and should not exist any longer. We've learned our lessons, their benefit and merit is irrelevant because even the best billionaires sit silently and are complicit. They have power, influence, and wealth - all the ingredients needed to directly affect change.
At best, they throw around pennies that don't address root causes and play the PR game, or play the blame game by focusing on individuals who are absolutely not responsible for the root causes of various issues that plague our societies.
I'm not suggesting that they be murdered. You're saying some are worse than others, I'm just saying the concept should die.
Thanks for agreeing with my sentiment loosely, sorry to trigger you.
Wow. Deep.
Yeah, I know.
He was until he forced patents onto a vaccine that was supposed to be free to the entire world.
Gates is responsible for millions of people in the Third World dying or getting long covid.
His foundation has done a lot of good, for sure, and he's actively giving away his billions. I think a lot of people just object to billionaires on principle, I do too TBH
Just not being as bad as Elon doesn't mean he isn't bad. It's like saying that alcoholic drunk asshole husband who beats his wife and kids isn't as bad as Ted Bundy.