Another billionaire chooses Trump. This time, it’s the historically liberal Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.
Gates told The Wall Street Journal that he was “impressed” by the president-elect.
“I had a chance to go have a long, and actually quite intriguing dinner with him,” Gates said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. He noted that he talked to Trump for three hours, along with Trump aide Susie Wiles and Gates’s aide Larry Cohen.
[…]
It’s a stunning remark from Gates, one of the richest people in the world, who previously said he donated more than $50 million to Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign. The news of the meeting comes after Trump claimed last month that the billionaire was begging to have a meeting with him.
I think the most depressing thing about this is that it will actually come as a surprise to some, who will be feeling let down by their pet “good billionaire”.
I hope if nothing else this serves as a wake up call to them to the true and inevitable nature of billionaires, but I won’t hold my breath…
E: smfh, just seen that a mod of this very community (and every other community on beehaw it seems lol) is one of those people, and I was wrong, they don’t even feel let down, they just flat out refuse to acknowledge. What a joke.
There are no moral billionaires - you do not exploit the labor of millions and hoard wealth like a dragon and get to call yourself a moral being by having a pet project of ending a disease.
Holy shit that was depressing. I already agreed with your sentiment before scrolling for literal minutes just to see the wealth of Jeff Bezos and then after that, the real deal just began.
Keep in mind that that is out of date, bezos is now worth $60b more at $239.4b, with musk topping him at $433.9b. The 400 richest Americans now hold $5.4 trillion (vs 3.2 in the pixel scroller).
Gates has done a magnificent job burying the fact that he is a horrible human being. There is a reason old Slashdot used him photoshopped as a Borg for a thumbnail for any story Microsoft.
People in tech that are not pathological tech-bros know that Bill Gates is a piece of shit since forever. And after that it came out he sexually harassed female employees at Microsoft and tried to rehabilitate Epstein. Of course he supports Trump.
he hasn’t ‘bowed down’. he had lunch. he fished for support for his own charitable interests. then he got lost in diaperking’s phony ‘charm’ and didn’t say anything ‘bad’ afterwords.
Soon after Trump won the election last November, Gates tweeted:
Congratulations to President Trump and VP-elect Vance. America is at its strongest when we use ingenuity and innovation to improve lives here in the U.S. and around the world. I hope we can work together now to build a brighter future for everyone.
Just look what Project 2025 says about public health care, issues like transgender medicine, reproductive rights, and just look at the people in charge for Trump’s health care plans. These are ‘anti-vaxxers’ to say the least. If these plans became reality, it’s hard to imagine imho that it will ‘improve lives’ in a ‘brighter future for everyone.’ Scientists openly warned senators to approve RFK jr. for secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services.
But Bill Gates is ‘impressed.’ No critical word.
Don’t get me wrong, Gates can do that for his charity, continued support for tax exemptions, and whatever he feels is important to him. He must not criticizes Trump openly if he doesn’t want to, but he then could at least withold such public praise. It’s a slap in the face to those threatened by a possible future lack of health care.
There is a very long worldwide stereotype of ultra-wealthy persons. Specifically, that all of them are evil and/or ungenerous. Obviously, this is grossly inaccurate. Bill Gates is one of the most generous persons among the ultra-wealthy.
The other claims about Bill Gates being made in this thread are exactly that -> claims.
Bill Gates donated a lot of money and that has really done so much to rehabilitate his image. In the 90s he was seen as one of the worst people alive, I remember memes with him in a portrait in place of Hitler and those were wildly popular in some online communities. He was a ruthless businessman who broke laws to ensure Microsoft’s dominance in the PC marketplace. Even the pro corporate US justice department found Microsoft guilty of antitrust violations. He also schemed to rip off his childhood friend and Microsoft cofounder out of shares when said friend was undergoing cancer treatment. You don’t get to be a billionaire by being nice or generous. Even the Simpsons did a joke about Gates buying a competitor out by basically beating up Homer and trashing his office.
I’d be super generous too if I had 100 billion dollars. Notice how he also hasn’t lost a whole lot of his net worth? He’s not giving you the shirt off his back, he’s giving out his pocket change. He just has really deep pockets.
You seem to foget that Gates had zero interest in philanthropy until he started taking massive flack for not doing any, back in the 90s, when he was the world’s richest person.
These are people who have the power to save lives, and yet don’t. Every day they could be providing affordable housing, medication, food, and other essential resources to people who don’t have them. They may set themselves up with tax shelters in the form of charitable donations, but are they out there at tent cities getting homeless people set up with safety nets when their lives fall apart? Are they personally providing life saving medication to those who the health insurance system is killing for profit?
Every yacht, every private jet, every thousand dollar dinner, every vacation home, all of that is them deciding again and again that their own increased opulence is more important than lifting someone else out of suffering.
Amassing wealth in greater quantities than vast droves will ever see in their lifetime while people are lacking basic necessities is not a morally neutral act. Being obscenely wealthy isn’t just an indicator of other potential moral failings, it is itself harmful and cruel. There’s no need for anything else.
Everything you said plus the fact that you cannot become that wealthy without exploiting people. Just fucking sickening to see people defending billionaires
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I think the most depressing thing about this is that it will actually come as a surprise to some, who will be feeling let down by their pet “good billionaire”.
I hope if nothing else this serves as a wake up call to them to the true and inevitable nature of billionaires, but I won’t hold my breath…
E: smfh, just seen that a mod of this very community (and every other community on beehaw it seems lol) is one of those people, and I was wrong, they don’t even feel let down, they just flat out refuse to acknowledge. What a joke.
There are no moral billionaires - you do not exploit the labor of millions and hoard wealth like a dragon and get to call yourself a moral being by having a pet project of ending a disease.
Holy shit that was depressing. I already agreed with your sentiment before scrolling for literal minutes just to see the wealth of Jeff Bezos and then after that, the real deal just began.
Keep in mind that that is out of date, bezos is now worth $60b more at $239.4b, with musk topping him at $433.9b. The 400 richest Americans now hold $5.4 trillion (vs 3.2 in the pixel scroller).
I would imagine updating that info in the tool is probably super depressing…
Might be why they haven’t done it in a while.
That, or the numbers are simply growing faster than the creator can keep up, which is just as depressing…
Exactly
Smfh indeed, what am I doing on here 😂
Gates has done a magnificent job burying the fact that he is a horrible human being. There is a reason old Slashdot used him photoshopped as a Borg for a thumbnail for any story Microsoft.
People in tech that are not pathological tech-bros know that Bill Gates is a piece of shit since forever. And after that it came out he sexually harassed female employees at Microsoft and tried to rehabilitate Epstein. Of course he supports Trump.
Oligarchs getting their oligarch on. Which one do you think gets defenestrated first?
Elon, after Trump finally gets sick of him using the presidential toilet for the hundredth time.
🤞
he hasn’t ‘bowed down’. he had lunch. he fished for support for his own charitable interests. then he got lost in diaperking’s phony ‘charm’ and didn’t say anything ‘bad’ afterwords.
Soon after Trump won the election last November, Gates tweeted:
Just look what Project 2025 says about public health care, issues like transgender medicine, reproductive rights, and just look at the people in charge for Trump’s health care plans. These are ‘anti-vaxxers’ to say the least. If these plans became reality, it’s hard to imagine imho that it will ‘improve lives’ in a ‘brighter future for everyone.’ Scientists openly warned senators to approve RFK jr. for secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services.
But Bill Gates is ‘impressed.’ No critical word.
Don’t get me wrong, Gates can do that for his charity, continued support for tax exemptions, and whatever he feels is important to him. He must not criticizes Trump openly if he doesn’t want to, but he then could at least withold such public praise. It’s a slap in the face to those threatened by a possible future lack of health care.
FTFY
Thanks. It’s corrected now.
I don’t care that he met with Trump. I care that he used it as an occasion to praise Trump publicly.
There is a very long worldwide stereotype of ultra-wealthy persons. Specifically, that all of them are evil and/or ungenerous. Obviously, this is grossly inaccurate. Bill Gates is one of the most generous persons among the ultra-wealthy.
The other claims about Bill Gates being made in this thread are exactly that -> claims.
Bill Gates donated a lot of money and that has really done so much to rehabilitate his image. In the 90s he was seen as one of the worst people alive, I remember memes with him in a portrait in place of Hitler and those were wildly popular in some online communities. He was a ruthless businessman who broke laws to ensure Microsoft’s dominance in the PC marketplace. Even the pro corporate US justice department found Microsoft guilty of antitrust violations. He also schemed to rip off his childhood friend and Microsoft cofounder out of shares when said friend was undergoing cancer treatment. You don’t get to be a billionaire by being nice or generous. Even the Simpsons did a joke about Gates buying a competitor out by basically beating up Homer and trashing his office.
I’d be super generous too if I had 100 billion dollars. Notice how he also hasn’t lost a whole lot of his net worth? He’s not giving you the shirt off his back, he’s giving out his pocket change. He just has really deep pockets.
Ah yes the super duper wholesome chungus billionaire just had to meet many times with Epstein (after he was a convicted child rapist) to do such amazing “philanthropy” that his wife had to divorce him for it 😍
I’m not interested in seeing more claims regardless of the source.
So you just bury your head in the sand until the unpleasant facts that don’t agree with your personal world view go away?
No
A translation for @remington’s comment can be “I’m sick of hearing about this sick motherfucker.”
I could be wrong, but a lot of people similarly feel that way about Trump, so it’s a good guess on my part. Shrug
I would be willing to believe that if he hadn’t said:
see this is what i get for being charitable :')
You seem to foget that Gates had zero interest in philanthropy until he started taking massive flack for not doing any, back in the 90s, when he was the world’s richest person.
Is it not obvious?
These are people who have the power to save lives, and yet don’t. Every day they could be providing affordable housing, medication, food, and other essential resources to people who don’t have them. They may set themselves up with tax shelters in the form of charitable donations, but are they out there at tent cities getting homeless people set up with safety nets when their lives fall apart? Are they personally providing life saving medication to those who the health insurance system is killing for profit?
Every yacht, every private jet, every thousand dollar dinner, every vacation home, all of that is them deciding again and again that their own increased opulence is more important than lifting someone else out of suffering.
Amassing wealth in greater quantities than vast droves will ever see in their lifetime while people are lacking basic necessities is not a morally neutral act. Being obscenely wealthy isn’t just an indicator of other potential moral failings, it is itself harmful and cruel. There’s no need for anything else.
Being rich is itself evil.
Everything you said plus the fact that you cannot become that wealthy without exploiting people. Just fucking sickening to see people defending billionaires
It’s honestly disturbing to see the owner of the instance expressing opinions like he is in this thread. It makes me question what I’m doing here.
Same
removed by mod
Deny, defend, delete Windows.
I wonder if they flew the Lolita express to pedo island together or just met there.
There’s a joke here, I know it.
We all already know you’re a kiddy fucker Bill. Don’t be a bitch on top of that.