Yeah, no.
I want to hear from you how, specifically, Microsoft’s high valuation (and thereby most of Gates’ wealth) is a product of war, famine, and poverty. I want concrete evidence, not handwaving, and not global capitalist conspiracies. If you can’t provide that, your claims are intellectually dishonest and you’re spreading a narrative.
Why do we even have to, yet again, bring the burden of the proof to fight a PR orchestrated with millions of dollar ?
It's an impossible to win fight to tell the sky is blue to people if the minute they don't look at it anymore, they doubt it and ask for proof.
Reporting from where, precisely? And how does it negate Gates’ philanthropy? We need to see details. What may be obvious to you is entirely unobvious to us.
> Why do we even have to, yet again, bring the burden of the proof to fight a PR orchestrated with millions of dollar?
Because claims require the burden of proof in general, and extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. What is your claim exactly? That the Gates Foundation has not, for example, nearly eradicated polio? That they weren’t even involved in the 99% reduction of its incidence? We’re debating with you in good faith by explaining what we see, it would be nice if you acknowledged us as intellectual peers and bothered to humor us with some evidence. You’re refuting our evidence with...nothing, and you haven’t given us evidence to refute. What are we supposed to do, just believe you?
> It's an impossible to win fight to tell the sky is blue to people if the minute they don't look at it anymore, they doubt it and ask for proof.
Look, if you want to rant into a void, continue carrying on like this. If you want to seriously convince people, you need to make an effort with falsifiable claims and some evidence instead of going on about a grand conspiracy to make Bill Gates look good.
What an incredibly effective conspiracy, to spend billions of dollars helping people. How nefarious of them, who would have thought of that!
Also, it's not safe to assume that everyone has read the same things you've read, and knows the same things you do. You have to be prepared to present your evidence during every conversation. Those are table stakes.
That’s both dismissive and intellectually insulting. Please tell me how this is “PR” and not honest altruism:
1. The Gates Foundation’s philanthropy is partly responsible for a 25% reduction in malaria diagnoses from 2005 onwards: https://www.gatesfoundation.org/What-We-Do/Global-Health/Mal...
2. Their efforts have dramatically reduced polio, nearly to the point of eradicating it entirely: https://www.gatesfoundation.org/What-We-Do/Global-Developmen...
Let’s start with those two. I gave you links directly from the foundation’s website. Please, by all means, enlighten us.
Especially when we all are also part of the economy and therefore by your logic also responsible for every war and famime etc.
So it is our hypocrisy as well.
But related: you know, that there have been wars and famine and poverty since the beginning of humanity(and before) ?
But I guess it's ok, if you fight Malaria.
And aiding a dictator sounds bad, but when "aiding" simply means doing business with him, then you can blame allmost the whole world. As we all are buying things that were at least partly made in dictatorships. And what is the alternative?
Not doing business with states who have not our perfectly nice democratic governments?
And don't get me wrong, I don't like Microsoft for making exclusive deals with any governments to strenghten their monopoly, but "evil" is something different.
Like what I came across yesterday again,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_Massacre
and the fact, that there was a public outrage in the US, for convincting one of the murderers. And not so much about the massacre or the cover up itself.
And that this does not seem to have changed fundamentaly regarding the ongoing drone war, imprisoning innocent people for years in Guantanamo, torturing, massacring etc. etc.
So blaming only the rich seems hypocrite to me, when the very normal base of the people don't think or act that nice by themself. As far as I know over 70% consider Snowden to be a traitor ... so what can you expect?
What exactly is the problem with "buying a stairway to heaven?" If you're actually doing good work, how is this criticism not just a vacuous attack?