• the_q@lemm.ee
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    22 hours ago

    Remember there are no good billionaires. No amount of “good” they do will ever be enough.

    • 13igTyme@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      Chuck Feeney is the closest we will ever get to a “good” billionaire. Donated over 99% of his wealth and spent his retirement being only worth $2 million.

      • whodatdair@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        21 hours ago

        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.

        • yeahiknow3@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          8 hours ago

          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.

          • Michael@slrpnk.net
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            6 minutes ago

            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?

          • whodatdair@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            21 hours ago

            👅👢

            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”

            • jsomae@lemmy.ml
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              52 minutes ago

              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.

            • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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              21 hours ago

              Your evidence that he is bad is that windows is bad.

              Our evidence that Bill Gates isn’t that bad is that Bill Gates has directly saved millions of lives by donating the vast majority of his wealth to an organization he created to supply medicine, food, and water to the world’s poorest regions namely Africa.

              I feel like we’re not on the same intellectual playing fields.

              • funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works
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                21 hours ago

                what about the numerous sexual harassment lawsuits, decades long friendship with Epstein including numerous trips on the lollita express and his longstanding board membership of Berkshire Hathaway which has presided over numerous ethics violations?

                • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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                  20 hours ago

                  The flight logs do not show that Bill Gates has ever visited the island on any plane. The most that has been confirmed is that Bill Gates flew from New Jersey to Florida on a private plane owned by Epstein once and that he had dinner with Epstain exactly once, which in interviews he expressed as a major mistake. I remind you that before 2006 Epstein was a public figure as a professional financier and broker and even until 2019 him and Ghislaine participated in major fundraisers.

                  Furthermore, your claim is one that gets constantly circulated by right wing nutjobs after a particularly viral tweet in 2023.

                  • Michael@slrpnk.net
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                    54 seconds ago

                    Bill Gates knowingly associated with a person involved with and convicted of some pretty crazy stuff. Bill knows it’s crazy, that’s why he’s been spending out the ass on PR for many years. His wife divorced him, and Bill’s relationship with Epstein was a seemingly big factor.

                    https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/articles/melinda-gates-opens-divorce-betrayal-211513816.html

                    Melinda: I did not like that he had meetings with Jeffrey Epstein, no. I made that clear to him…He was abhorrent. He was evil personified. My heart breaks for these women.

                    The philanthropist stressed that Bill’s relationship with the sex offender affected her deeply, writing: “That October, things had reached a fever pitch when The New York Times published a deeply disturbing article that raised serious questions about Bill’s conduct.”

                    “Questions that suggested he had betrayed not only our marriage but also my values,” Melinda lamented in her book.

                    If even his former wife throws Bill under the bus, why are you defending him?

                • Auli@lemmy.ca
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                  15 hours ago

                  What friendship. He was never at the island according to records. Unless you have some proof.

                  • Psychadelligoat@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                    11 hours ago

                    Oh, so he just flew on the plane named after the pedophile book and was known to also have children on it for the sexual pleasure of whoever was there?

                    The island wasn’t the only place kids were getting fucked, dude

      • JacksonLamb@lemmy.world
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        14 hours ago

        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.

      • Regrettable_incident@lemmy.world
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        16 hours ago

        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

      • Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
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        7 hours ago

        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.