• conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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    3 days ago

    Cool story, Bill. Who did you donate to? Why did you cut your philanthropic efforts to fight climate change and disease? Why have you and your buddies fought for minimizing and coopting government for years? Bill isn’t innocent in all this, it’s just a good time to blame Elon. Don’t get me wrong, Elon 100% deserves it, but that doesn’t mean that Bill isn’t playing the PR game here.

    • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Why did you cut your philanthropic efforts to fight climate change and disease? Why have you and your buddies fought for minimizing

      The problem is that billionaires should not exist but come on. $80 billion already donated. $7 Billion more just for Africa. Hundreds of millions in malaria research.

      https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/2022/11/17/bill-gates-foundation-pledges-7-billion-to-support-africa-health-and-agriculture/

      Could he do more? Sure. But attacking someone who is doing a little because he isn’t doing more doesn’t seem fair.

      Years ago Elon said he was disappointed when he met Bill Gates because Gates only wanted to talk about philanthropy and climate.

      • Keeponstalin@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Microsoft is perhaps the most complicit tech company in Israel’s illegal apartheid regime and ongoing genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza. Microsoft’s complicity in Israel’s apartheid and genocide is well documented, exposing its strong ties to the Israeli military, its collaboration with Israeli government ministries, and its involvement in the Israeli prison system, which is notorious for systematic torture and abuse of Palestinians. Microsoft knowingly provides Israel with technology, including artificial intelligence (AI), that is deployed to facilitate grave human rights violations, war crimes, crimes against humanity (including apartheid), as well as genocide. In light of the International Court of Justice’s legally-binding rulings to prevent Israel’s plausible genocide in Gaza, as well as its July 19 Advisory Opinion affirming Israel’s illegal occupation and apartheid system, Microsoft has failed its corporate obligation to prevent genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Microsoft, as well as its boards of directors and executives, may face criminal liability for this complicity.

        Microsoft provides the Israeli military with Azure cloud and AI services that are crucial in empowering and accelerating Israel’s genocidal war on 2.3 million Palestinians in the illegally occupied Gaza Strip. Microsoft’s extensive ties with Israel’s military are revealed in investigations by The Guardian with the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine, demonstrating how the Israeli military turned to Microsoft to meet the technological demands of genocide.

        The 7 billion to Africa isn’t as nice as it first seems either; it’s investments into venture capitalist solutions, much more restrictive that aid and the profits are not realized by the locals

        https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/12/02/perhaps-bill-gates-not-best-expert-hunger-africa

        https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/11/10/open-letter-bill-gates-food-farming-and-africa

            • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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              2 days ago

              Saytalla seeking advice doesn’t mean Gates is making the business decisions.

              And claiming Microsoft cloud services are worse than RTX’s actual bombs that kill children is a stretch.

              • Keeponstalin@lemmy.world
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                2 days ago

                And claiming Microsoft cloud services are worse than RTX’s actual bombs that kill children is a stretch.

                They all kill children and I boycott them all. You’re the only one running defense by minimizing Microsoft’s role here.

                For example, Amazon, Google and Microsoft have all launched major cloud computing centres in Israel, offering businesses infrastructure critical to data-driven products and services. Intel is the largest private employer in the country, having commenced operations in 1974.

                Along with hundreds of other multinationals, Microsoft hosts its own research and development (R&D) centre in Israel, and it launched a chip development centre in Haifa. Nvidia, the trillion-dollar chip behemoth powering the AI revolution, has also announced it is expanding its already large R&D operations in Israel. The list goes on

                Gates’ advice is reportedly treated as gospel, and he also played a crucial role in fostering Microsoft and OpenAI’s partnership, and consequently, the success witnessed in the category.

                Claiming Gates isn’t heavily involved and influential in the business decisions is just straight up untrue, stop whitewashing his contributions to genocide.

                In summary, Bill Gates’s relationship with Israel is characterized by his admiration for the country’s technological innovation and his significant investments through Microsoft and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. While he has not publicly engaged in the political aspects of the Israel/Palestine conflict, his actions and statements suggest a supportive stance toward Israel’s role in global technology. This support is evident in his continued investments and public recognition of Israel’s achievements in digital security and biotechnology.

                • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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                  2 days ago

                  They all kill children and I boycott them all.

                  You know what actually supports Israel? Food imports. You should be boycotting American, Swiss, German and Dutch farm produce. Cut off their food and they can’t bomb.

                  Along with hundreds of other multinationals, Microsoft hosts its own research and development (R&D) centre in Israel,

                  Any company with an office in Israel? You boycott every large business? EVERY ONE? Apple, AMD, Intel, ARM? They are all in Israel. How are you even replying to this post without uses the CPU’s that you claim to boycott?

                  and he also played a crucial role in fostering Microsoft and OpenAI’s partnership

                  AI isn’t killing children. Israeli leaders are killing children. OpenAI is super charged spell checker. Have you even used it? It fixes the grammar. It helps write software. But so did autocomplete before LLM’s.

                  Claiming Gates isn’t heavily involved

                  Are you an executive at Microsoft? Because if you aren’t YOU DON’T KNOW THAT.
                  https://www.techspot.com/news/107724-sources-detail-growing-rift-between-sam-altman-satya.html

      • JacksonLamb@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        The problem is that billionaires should not exist but come on. $80 billion already donated. $7 Billion more just for Africa. Hundreds of millions in malaria research.

        Philanthropists hoarding wealth and resources and then getting to choose which of the poors to allow to have any is actually part of the problem, even if it makes you feel good.

        We saw that when Gates leveraged his contributions to force a vaccine that had been developed with public money for the benefit of humankind, to become patent locked and hard for the Third World to access or afford.

    • Bacano@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Mmm yes. This is why I Lemmy. This article had so many bots praising him on Reddit. Refreshing to hear something other than boot licking

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Wrong place for “both sides the same”. Sure, any of us could do more, and billionaires could do a lot more, but you’re equating a Nazi cutting entire government programs to aid the most vulnerable here and abroad, with a billionaire who has donated a significant portion of his personal wealth to aid humanity, including eradicating diseases

      • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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        3 days ago

        Nah, I saw a year or two back that Bill was pulling back from his climate and disease philanthropy. I think this is just him jumping on a chance to do some PR by dunking on Musk.

        • AA5B@lemmy.world
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          19 hours ago

          There was a recent announcement where he reiterated a goal of giving away 99% of his wealth! Of course you could quibble about his choices of charity and how he built his wealth, but the formerly wealthiest person in the US giving away 99% is a huge deal, and we can not dream of other billionaires following suit.

          While Musk isn’t retired yet, how much has he donated to any cause? Yes, Musk deserves this PR dunk

          • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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            19 hours ago

            Musk deserves a lot more than just a PR dunk, but I’m still not entirely convinced that it’s just a cynical PR play. Hopefully Bill will prove me wrong.

          • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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            3 days ago

            Well, a few things:

            1. they say the only bad press is no press.

            2. We’re at a moment where anger against the wealthiest people on the planet has never been higher, except maybe during a revolution. Bill is among this group, and he’s likely cognizant that Dingus and Doofus up in DC are exacerbating that sentiment. Maybe he’s hedging his bets to keep from getting put against the wall.

            3. Didn’t he fly to Epstein Island? Wasn’t it shortly after we found out about that that Melinda divorced him? Probably not the most recent thing he’d like to be remembered for.

            • AA5B@lemmy.world
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              19 hours ago

              Gates was always widely reviled. He didn’t build a vast fortune drowning competitors and locking customers into frustrating experiences by being a Boy Scout.

              Maybe you dismiss his actions in retirement as an attempt to resurrect his reputation, but it’s succeeded. Compare to other billionaires. Did he keep building wealth until he died? No. Did he focus on establishing a dynasty or wealthy chain of heirs? No. Did he buy his way into politics? No. Did he only donate to one place? No. Did his foundation fade away into obscurity and irrelevance? No. Did he donate to the most popular causes among billionaires? No. Now try to find a billionaire who has done as much good for as many people. From anywhere in history

              It’s easy to find fault in anyone, but this is the wrong windmill to tilt at.

      • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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        3 days ago

        Nobody, but I voted for Harris. Last I saw, Gates was cutting back on donating to his foundation that fights infectious diseases in the developing world.

        • Godric@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          So you’re just whingeing online about someone who plans to spend 99% of their wealth on saving millions of lives, while you’ve done fuck-all.

          Let me stop what I’m doing so I can clap for you and your moral high ground.