Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist calls fellow tech titan ‘super-smart’ but guilty of ‘overreach’

Summary

Bill Gates criticized Elon Musk for his support of far-right politicians, including the UK’s Tommy Robinson and Germany’s AfD party, calling it “insane shit” and accusing Musk of destabilizing political systems.

Gates questioned Musk’s focus on divisive politics while managing global businesses like Tesla and SpaceX.

Gates also expressed concern about wealthy individuals influencing foreign elections.

Musk has faced backlash for controversial actions, including a Nazi salute.

  • mercEnglish
    1·
    2 days ago

    His philanthropy, while objectively good,

    I wouldn’t even go that far.

    Say you have a crazy idea that education would be better if kids went to school blindfolded so they wouldn’t be distracted. You then use your vast fortune to arrange for that to be tried out on a bunch of kids for a few years. It’s a disaster. It sets those kids back for years. You realize it’s a disaster, so after a few years you abandon the project.

    In that case was your philanthropy objectively good? Or was it probably bad?

    Those are the kinds of experiments the Gates foundation has done. Because Gates is so insanely rich, he doesn’t have to bother with convincing people he has a good idea. He doesn’t need to run his ideas by education experts or psychologists, he can just run with them. So he does, and he fucks shit up, then he leaves.