this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2025
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[–] PissingIntoTheWind@lemmy.world 3 points 20 hours ago

My buddy has been getting tons of testing and high skill engineering equipment from facilities closed down after Bill Gates pulled funding. I guess he’s pivoting research because of Trump. My buddy has warehouse worth the growing equipment now from one of his labs plus tons of other stuff.

[–] DeICEAmerica@lemmy.world 3 points 21 hours ago

Too much money makes you abhorrent and eventually evil. Notice how not ONE of the nearly 1000 billionaires that reside in the USA have stepped up to offer assistance to help feed the people who will be starving next month. I would be sick with myself if I had that wealth and did nothing. These people have forgotten where they came from. Is it time, yet, to remind them?

[–] Fedizen@lemmy.world 22 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Bill Gates charitable donations do real good but they are paltry sums compared to what taxing him would do. Its best to view billionaire donations as at best a guilty conscience and at worst insincere marketing.

This isn't an 'either or' question and framing it that way is deliberate. As though his money alone couldn't fix both issues for years.

Tax the rich and make them taste reality again. They need to be taxed, its good for them. Ease their guilty consciences of all this sinful monetary excess.

[–] Mangoholic@lemmy.ml 3 points 21 hours ago

The organization he donates from donates 5% of that money to fight climate change and 95% is invested into fossil fuels. Its just to clean his image nothing more.

[–] Omgpwnies@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

His "donations" are to his own charity, that he then gets to use to reduce his tax burden. Billionaire philanthropy is another avenue of profit for them, nothing else.

[–] electric_nan@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 day ago

Not to mention plum jobs for friends and family.

[–] oyo@lemmy.zip 12 points 1 day ago

Billionaire's Disease is indiscriminate. We must all work to end its plague upon society.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 day ago

Don't worry, climate scientists who have investigated this issue for decades now, bill Gates says it'll be fine

[–] 1985MustangCobra@lemmy.ca 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Bill Gates, the guy who stole MS-DOS.

[–] dellish@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Ahhh good old QDOS. What a piece of shit.

[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 99 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Cool uncle mask falling off. Familiar face emerges.

[–] teawrecks@sopuli.xyz 53 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Ask me how I know you only read the headline.

more money should go toward “improving lives” and curbing disease and poverty.

“Climate is super important but has to be considered in terms of overall human welfare,”

The headline is deliberately misleading and honestly should be corrected or removed.

Please put in slightly more effort next time, thanks.

[–] scintilla@crust.piefed.social 18 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Kinda shocked that after all the recent info coming out he thinks that it's not going to be a "climate disaster" lmao. Headline is deliberately misleading but that doesn't make bill less of an idiot.

[–] FartMaster69@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The problem with “effective altruism” ideology, it’s dependent on the whims of the wealthy.

[–] Perspectivist@feddit.uk 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

By what logic? Can't normal people donate money to effective causes?

[–] FartMaster69@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Sure, but effective altruism is a specific ideology. Not just donating to causes.

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[–] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 12 points 2 days ago (2 children)

His philanthropy was always a response to how much people hated him because of Microsoft. He is so thin-skinned and can’t stand even legitimate grievances against him.

[–] JoshuaFalken@lemmy.world 18 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I'll take a thin skinned billionaire that donates some of those billions to feel warm and fuzzy over a thick skinned one that laughs from a balcony as people lose their homes.

[–] Rothe@piefed.social 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'll take neither. Billionaires can all go under the guillotine.

[–] JoshuaFalken@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Well sure, in optimism land, why not go for them all. In the real world, that wouldn't be possible given the amount of insulation they have and protection they can afford.

My meaning here is that if the choice were presented between guillotining one of them that donates money occasionally, and another that doesn't so much as pretend to give a damn, I'm going to point at the latter.

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[–] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I've checked the numbers once. Gates donated to his foundation $20B and today the foundation has over $70B. Bill, through his foundation, controls 3x more money they he donated. He's using foundation's grants to influence policy and research at a global scale. This is not about helping anyone, it's about excreting power over governments while improving his public image.

What he should be doing instead? Paying taxes.

[–] JoshuaFalken@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Forgive me but while I could agree the primary purpose for his actions may not be philanthropic intent, it certainly has some positive butterfly effects - like the research you mention. Maybe it's not about helping anyone, but that's not to say that it doesn't help anyone.

Regardless this isn't the place to get into the minutiae. My point was that if we put the ten digit club in a cage and told them only one is allowed back out, I'd prefer Gates find victory than someone like Musk.

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[–] cogitase@lemmy.dbzer0.com 80 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Bill Gates said too many resources are going toward climate change instead of issues like welfare and poverty…

In the letter, Gates called out the “doomsday view” of climate change and said leaders need to make a “strategic pivot” to focus on issues that have the “greatest impact on human welfare.”

“It’s the best way to ensure that everyone gets a chance to live a healthy and productive life no matter where they’re born, and no matter what kind of climate they’re born into,” he wrote.

The “generative AI” part of the headline is not particularly relevant to the article, but is a great test to see who reads the article before rushing to comment.

[–] FoxyFerengi@startrek.website 50 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Bill Gates knows better than most that there's enough money in the world to try and tackle both climate change and poverty, and still leave him a billionaire.

I think the wording that really bugs me in his quote is "healthy and productive life". If all the alarms are true we're already fucked on climate, so he's concerned about maintaining a labor force.

[–] evenglow@lemmy.world 18 points 2 days ago (6 children)

It's not money. It's timing. You really want UBI before automation. There's never been a push for AI and robots like this before.

[–] FlyingCircus@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

UBI is a pipe dream. Capitalists would never agree to pay for it. And it wouldn’t even matter if they did. Under capitalism, companies and landlords would just raise rent and prices if we all had UBI. Exactly what happened with the Covid stimulus programs.

No, unfortunately the only solution is to do away with capitalism entirely and start doing socialism instead.

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[–] Rothe@piefed.social 9 points 1 day ago

Bill Gates was recently at the meeting where all the US tech oligarchs kissed Trump's ring. The article changes nothing about how Bill Gates is very much part of the problem, and this "change" is exclusively based on his oligarch reasons.

[–] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 15 points 2 days ago

Actual headline:

Bill Gates softens ‘Climate Disaster’ approach, says strategy needs to shift: Interview

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[–] rimu@piefed.social 43 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Although Gates said investment to battle climate change must continue, he argued that US President Donald Trump's cuts to USAID threaten a more urgent problem

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/577152/bill-gates-makes-a-stunning-claim-about-climate-change

He's not wrong. Trump's cuts to USAID will cause the death of millions in quite a short time.

[–] pupbiru@aussie.zone 23 points 2 days ago

and yet climate change is still an even more long-term important problem

[–] LordMayor@piefed.social 36 points 2 days ago

Someone got their name purged from the Epstein papers, it seems.

Dude wants AI for more money. He doesn’t give a fuck.

[–] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 day ago

What do the other "subscription rich" think?

[–] NGC2346@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

"If i say what these filthy peasants want, will they forget i was on Epstein list ?"

  • Billy Gator, probably
[–] Jumbie@lemmy.zip 0 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Is there proof he is on the list or are we just throwing conspiracies out there?

[–] electric_nan@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago

He loved hanging out with Epstein, whom he described as having an "intriguing lifestyle".

[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 19 points 2 days ago (1 children)

But... but, he's one of the "good billionaires", Reddit told me so. He'S A phiLAnthroPISt!

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[–] NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 days ago

"He is a learned man" -I don't think I like anything else about him

[–] someguy3@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I believe he was anti green energy before, then made a pivot, and I guess he's back.

*Now that I read it

In a letter published Tuesday ahead of next week’s COP30 U.N. climate summit, Gates argued that too many resources are focused on emissions and the environment, and that more money should go toward “improving lives” and curbing disease and poverty.

“Climate is super important but has to be considered in terms of overall human welfare,” Gates told CNBC’

[–] Peruvian_Skies@sh.itjust.works 10 points 2 days ago

What he said isn't exactly wrong in and of itself. Only in the context of when and why he said it. Of course we have to keep human welfare in mind, but the climate crisis has reached a point where all human welfare in the not so distant future depends on how heavily we address environmental issues right now. And he's only saying that to save face.

[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

First, no editorialized headlines. Second, I have no opinion on the guy but he's sounding more just wrong than evil here.

[–] Rothe@piefed.social 4 points 1 day ago

He was at the techbro oligarch meeting with Trump, kissing his ring recently. The guy is definitely evil.

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