Linus Torvalds and Bill Gates Meet for the First Time Ever
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It's still giving money away though? Why would you want there to be taxes on charity?
It's more nuanced though. Here's how rich people use charities to gain wealth:
Rich person has tons of money that would be taxed if bill Y passes. Rich person creates a charity and donated 20% of what they would had to pay to the IRS to the charity, with that money the charity uses half for good causes and half is given to X lobby company, which then lobbies politicians to avoid passing that bill.
In the end, the rich person saved 80% of what they would had to pay.
Yeah, 10% went to good causes but imagine what the society could afford if 100% went through instead of 0.
This is a very rough outline of how they do it, but the summary is that they use charities to donate to lobbies while skipping taxes on the donation itself.
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the ends don't justify the means.
Hitler experimented on hundreds of thousands of Jews and the medical world benefited from it greatly.
does that mean you're going to nuance the Nazi regime because they "did some good"?
no amount of good is worth the ounce of evil used to make it.
edit: if the ends justify the means, where do you draw the line? how many lives must suffer in order for the goal to be achieved? 1 life? 10? 1 million?
and to those of you claiming Godwin's law, I used it as an example. I don't think Bill Gates is Hitler, I never even said anything like that. we could easily use the Tuskegee Airmen and the US Department of Health. How many of those families had to suffer to make the ends justified in your opinion.
IMO none. there is no amount of loss of life that is acceptance for any means. life is precious and unique and deserves to be protected.
edit 2: I didn't realize humanity sold out their morals and ethics for the "greater good". my mistake thinking we were better than that. sorry.
I hate billionaires as much as the next gal, but I think comparing Bill Gates to Hitler is a bit extreme
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I hate billionaires as much as the next gal, but I think comparing Bill Gates to Hitler is a bit extreme
Welcome to Lemmy, heh.
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Bill Gates and Linus Torvalds have apparently never met in person before, despite their pseudo-rivalry.
I hate to sound preachy, but this is a good example of “rivals” peacefully meeting.
So many people I meet IRL seem conditioned to think this person they hate on the internet would be someone they’d shout at like they’re an axe murderer, in the middle of a murder. It’s the example they see. Death threats are, like, normal on Facebook or TV News or whatever they’re into, apparently.
Again at risk of reaching... this feels like positive masculinity to me.
And leaders acting like adults.
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I said in another thread about this, he looks like an older Tom Scott.
Tom Scott with receding hairline
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the ends don't justify the means.
Hitler experimented on hundreds of thousands of Jews and the medical world benefited from it greatly.
does that mean you're going to nuance the Nazi regime because they "did some good"?
no amount of good is worth the ounce of evil used to make it.
edit: if the ends justify the means, where do you draw the line? how many lives must suffer in order for the goal to be achieved? 1 life? 10? 1 million?
and to those of you claiming Godwin's law, I used it as an example. I don't think Bill Gates is Hitler, I never even said anything like that. we could easily use the Tuskegee Airmen and the US Department of Health. How many of those families had to suffer to make the ends justified in your opinion.
IMO none. there is no amount of loss of life that is acceptance for any means. life is precious and unique and deserves to be protected.
edit 2: I didn't realize humanity sold out their morals and ethics for the "greater good". my mistake thinking we were better than that. sorry.
When did I say the ends justified the means? I explicitly said that Bill Gates is a bad person and I didn’t say the foundation was clean or something. I don’t think you understand what that phrase means.
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Bill Gates and Linus Torvalds have apparently never met in person before, despite their pseudo-rivalry.
Now kithhh
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When did I say the ends justified the means? I explicitly said that Bill Gates is a bad person and I didn’t say the foundation was clean or something. I don’t think you understand what that phrase means.
He is not a good person. But the foundation has done some good work.
seems like a justification to me dude. you're literally justifying his indiscretions, that you even call out, by saying the charity he heads "has done some good work".
And I sure as hell don’t white wash Bill Gates. You don’t get to that level of wealth and dominance without cracking skulls and ruining lives every step of the way.
I don't know if you're actually being misleading or confusing by accident but calling attention to it being "nuanced" is a clear indicator that your argument supports that the "ends justify the means".
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He is not a good person. But the foundation has done some good work.
seems like a justification to me dude. you're literally justifying his indiscretions, that you even call out, by saying the charity he heads "has done some good work".
And I sure as hell don’t white wash Bill Gates. You don’t get to that level of wealth and dominance without cracking skulls and ruining lives every step of the way.
I don't know if you're actually being misleading or confusing by accident but calling attention to it being "nuanced" is a clear indicator that your argument supports that the "ends justify the means".
It’s not justification. He is a person. It is a non-profit. The non-profit has vaccinated countless people, for instance. That is a good thing. Bill Gates still sucks.
Why is this complicated? You can’t be serious right now, this is such obvious nonsense on your part.
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I hate billionaires as much as the next gal, but I think comparing Bill Gates to Hitler is a bit extreme
I didn't compare them, but in your mind you understood it that way.
I used Hitler as an example, an extreme one, but still an example of "the ends justify the means".
could have use any number of examples, but I went with one I thought everyone could relate to. clearly I miscalculated the selfishness of modern day philosophies.
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I didn't compare them, but in your mind you understood it that way.
I used Hitler as an example, an extreme one, but still an example of "the ends justify the means".
could have use any number of examples, but I went with one I thought everyone could relate to. clearly I miscalculated the selfishness of modern day philosophies.
You literally used Nazis as an argument against Gates. That’s comparing. What is your deal?
It’s not selfish philosophies, you shoehorned in Nazis so damn fast. That’s not relatable, it’s a cheap tactic.
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It’s not justification. He is a person. It is a non-profit. The non-profit has vaccinated countless people, for instance. That is a good thing. Bill Gates still sucks.
Why is this complicated? You can’t be serious right now, this is such obvious nonsense on your part.
it's a nonprofit he directly benefits from because it has his name on it. he directly benefits from it by using it as a way to sway political power. he directly benefits from it through financial gains paid through the organization.
the entire concept of the foundation is contingent on his financial success. something of which he is well known for destroying lives for.
so tell me, how many of those ruined lives were acceptable for the good that his charity does? how many more lives must be ruined for the good to continue to be acceptable? would you find it acceptable if your life was destroyed to continue the good his charity does? would you be willing to accept your life to be ruined or ended to support the continuation of his charity?
I don't understand why you don't see the obvious correlation between the two so I'll over simplify it.
bad man makes bad money making people suffer. bad money makes good stuff happen under bad man name. bad man still bad man doing good stuff for bad reasons.
you sit and justify his actions by arguing he's doing good things. I question if he's doing good things just to do them or if they're a byproduct of him "cleansing" his name. after all, bad men do bad things. Ever heard of Alfred Nobel?
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It's still giving money away though? Why would you want there to be taxes on charity?
Because they are tax avoidance mechanism first and charity seconds.
Money is a brokering system of power, charitues being tax free makes these entities unaccountable to democratic institurions.
That's how we ended up with this infection of corrupt megachurches.
The "prosperity gospel" is billionaire-serving propaganda. It empowers their formation, growth and necessary abuses that come from such widespread exploitation.
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it's a nonprofit he directly benefits from because it has his name on it. he directly benefits from it by using it as a way to sway political power. he directly benefits from it through financial gains paid through the organization.
the entire concept of the foundation is contingent on his financial success. something of which he is well known for destroying lives for.
so tell me, how many of those ruined lives were acceptable for the good that his charity does? how many more lives must be ruined for the good to continue to be acceptable? would you find it acceptable if your life was destroyed to continue the good his charity does? would you be willing to accept your life to be ruined or ended to support the continuation of his charity?
I don't understand why you don't see the obvious correlation between the two so I'll over simplify it.
bad man makes bad money making people suffer. bad money makes good stuff happen under bad man name. bad man still bad man doing good stuff for bad reasons.
you sit and justify his actions by arguing he's doing good things. I question if he's doing good things just to do them or if they're a byproduct of him "cleansing" his name. after all, bad men do bad things. Ever heard of Alfred Nobel?
Dude ffs
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Bill Gates is a bad person
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The US has a corrupt charity structure
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The B&MG Foundation has done some good work
Please explain to me why these three statements are incompatible. Please explain to me how I have been whitewashing Bill Gates when I’m explicitly saying over and over again he is a bad person. Please explain to me how I have not acknowledged that nonprofits are often used for corrupt purposes.
I do not understand how many ways I have to say this to get it through your incredibly thick skull.
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Nope. And I sure as hell don’t white wash Bill Gates. You don’t get to that level of wealth and dominance without cracking skulls and ruining lives every step of the way. He is not a good person. But the foundation has done some good work. Surely this isn’t too nuanced for you to understand?
Edit: no clue why it automatically capitalized wash
It capitalized Wash because spell checker is the leaf on the wind.
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Torvalds is still very active on the Linux kernel. As far as I know, he's in charge of it and makes major decisions about its direction.
Bill Gates retired from Microsoft in 2008.
That means there are highschool seniors who weren't even alive while Bill Gates was at Microsoft. Interns might not even know who he is.
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Bill Gates and Linus Torvalds have apparently never met in person before, despite their pseudo-rivalry.
Too bad Steve Wozniak wasn't there too lol
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That means there are highschool seniors who weren't even alive while Bill Gates was at Microsoft. Interns might not even know who he is.
I'm sure if they work there they know who he is though lol but possibly I suppose
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it's a nonprofit he directly benefits from because it has his name on it. he directly benefits from it by using it as a way to sway political power. he directly benefits from it through financial gains paid through the organization.
the entire concept of the foundation is contingent on his financial success. something of which he is well known for destroying lives for.
so tell me, how many of those ruined lives were acceptable for the good that his charity does? how many more lives must be ruined for the good to continue to be acceptable? would you find it acceptable if your life was destroyed to continue the good his charity does? would you be willing to accept your life to be ruined or ended to support the continuation of his charity?
I don't understand why you don't see the obvious correlation between the two so I'll over simplify it.
bad man makes bad money making people suffer. bad money makes good stuff happen under bad man name. bad man still bad man doing good stuff for bad reasons.
you sit and justify his actions by arguing he's doing good things. I question if he's doing good things just to do them or if they're a byproduct of him "cleansing" his name. after all, bad men do bad things. Ever heard of Alfred Nobel?
You're being obtuse. The nuance here is that Bill Gates being.a bad person and his charity org having done some good in the world are facts that are not necessarily dependent or correlated with each other. That's all. The fact that Gates might be using his org to prop his image is also a consequence of his character, and doesn't take away from the good the charity has done. Or would you rather the charity didn't exist at all just so your thirst for consistency would be appeased, all the while people would be dying?
