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Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

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Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#151
post #93

He is easily one of the least bullshit-y sources when it comes to handling of COVID. But then there's this right in the middle of the interview: " And when you have [posts] encrypted, there is no way to know what it is. I personally believe government should not allow those types of lies or fraud or child pornography [to be hidden with encryption like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger] ". Quite literally, encrypted comm…

The desire to own all the information to own the whole world.

And it's obvious that this is not "his" statement, but a statement from the mouth of a puppet who is absolutely dependent on spreading the agenda in order to maintain his status quo of an "independent billionaire"

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#152
post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think he is saying that encrypted communication should be illegal. He's saying that spreading lies through encrypted channels should be stopped. It would not be hard for WhatsApp to prevent people from spreading bogus videos, because they have access to the unencrypted information before and after sending. So either preventing people from sharing misinformation or preventing people from reading the misinforma…

> It would not be hard for WhatsApp to prevent people from spreading bogus videos The problem is there’s no agreed upon definition for what’s “bogus”. A while ago someone commented here with a list of statements ranging from obviously false obviously true to show how hard the problem is, I wish I could find it.

I wish you could too, as it sounds very interesting!

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#153

I think Gates is right. What is the problem with the government controlling communication? There are clear advantages, like handling illegal things. What are the disadvantages, the nude photo of your ex-girlfriend being analyzed by a machine?

If you assume the government to be lawful and of high morals, of course. On the other hand, if your country is run by literal Nazis, the idea doesn't sound so good anymore. I hope your ancestry is pure of whatever lineage the rulers of the next fascist empire will be.

But in that case you've already lost all freedom. What can be done in a fascist country by sending encrypted messages?

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#154
post #129
post #93

He is easily one of the least bullshit-y sources when it comes to handling of COVID. But then there's this right in the middle of the interview: " And when you have [posts] encrypted, there is no way to know what it is. I personally believe government should not allow those types of lies or fraud or child pornography [to be hidden with encryption like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger] ". Quite literally, encrypted comm…

Even on Covid. He warned in Feb that covid could result in 10 millions deaths in Africa, when we knew already from the Chinese numbers that the demographics of covid deaths was massively skewed toward 70yo+, and Africa has a very young population. I classify him in the FUD spreading category.

Is this the quote you based your classification on? Seems like he is talking generally about the threat of a pandemic causing 10 million or more deaths. He also mentions Asia.

"This is a huge challenge, we’ve always known the potential for a naturally caused, or intentionally caused, pandemic is one if the few things that could disrupt health systems and economies and cause more than 10 million excess deaths.

This could be particularly if it spreads in areas like sub-Saharan Africa and some Asia, it could be very very dramatic.

We’re doing the constant science to provide the tools to do the diagnosis to provide vaccines, to provide therapeutics and hopefully contain this epidemic, but it’s potentially a very bad situation."

(found this here -> https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/02/15/coronovirus-bill...)

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#155

I think Gates is right. What is the problem with the government controlling communication? There are clear advantages, like handling illegal things. What are the disadvantages, the nude photo of your ex-girlfriend being analyzed by a machine?

Are you serious? Here are some disadvantages:

If you got connections to government, you can steal trade secrets from companies and enrich yourself and destroy the competition.

Destroy the lives of your political opponents by blackmailing.

Analyse and control the public sentiment to crush minorities.

I recommend you read a bit of stasi: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasi

Also Bill Gates wants full government control because he is practically within the circles of government, obviously he would benefit from such agreements, but same cannot be said for plebs.

Anyhow, even if people like Bill Gates might benefit from such undemocratic agreements, tide can always turn against them and this level of censorship and surveillance can be used against them even more effectively than that is currently used againsts plebeians.

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's an interesting claim. Pretty much every piece of negative opinion of Gates I've seen have either been 1. About his work at Microsoft 2. Or some conspiracy theory about world domination, population control etc I'd be interested to read more on how societies he's directly worked with think of him, if you have any links

It has to do with Gates' vaccine program in India. Here is a paper you can read. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30111741/

Not a paper, but perhaps worth reading, is this article, which discusses other conflict of interest accusations. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/healthcare/bio...

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#157

I think Gates is right. What is the problem with the government controlling communication? There are clear advantages, like handling illegal things. What are the disadvantages, the nude photo of your ex-girlfriend being analyzed by a machine?

I can't imagine living in a country with chief executives as diverse as Donald Trump, Barack Obama, FDR, and Ronald Reagan, and still being naïve enough to think there's no problem with the government controlling communication. You can't imagine an executive branch led by any of those people using that power inappropriately?

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#158
post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bill Gates certainly doesn’t have the credentials of a public health expert. His work with health experts has extended to funding and choosing what problems to solve. You’d presume he’s learned a fair amount about it over the years. But I’ve learned a fair amount about accountancy through my years of working with corporate accountants. I’m definitely not an accountancy expert though. What qualifications do you imagin…

If your full time job is to lead corporate accountants / head a large corporate accountancy firm and you've done it for several years, I'd consider you an accountancy expert.

I guess that makes the guy who manages my software engineering team a software engineering expert too?

As far as I can tell, the person who actually leads the Gates Foundation health division is Trevor Mundel. Even then, the work of the Gates Foundation has been in funding projects lead by other organisations, rather than in implementing those projects themselves.

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is misleading at best. Sure, his dad was a lawyer and he was raised in a well-off househould. But he made something -- Microsoft -- through his own ingenuity, effort, and business acumen. I didn't agree with his business ethics, but to pretend he just fell into MS because of his connected family is fairly ridiculous. Amazingly, he has since turned his fortune into one of the most successful philanthropy projects…

Gates mother introduced Microsoft to IBM for the contract by speaking with the then Chairman of IBM, who she was an acquaintance of. How many of your parents can do something like that? Sure, Bill is a very smart person. But it's kind of impossible to say for sure whether he could have been as sucessful, if he was born in a different family. Parents play a major role in shaping the mind of children. For what we know…

Parents connection doesn't mean you will get the business out of personal experience it can even lead to the opposite to avoid being blamed for nepotism.

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#160
post #39
post #36

Maybe it’s just me, but I find it odd that Gates is the go to source for public health issues. His biggest contribution is money, which pays for really smart people to tackle these issues. So why not talk to the really smart people he hired?

An excellent question that shouldn't be downvoted. Why is Bill Gates "the guy?" Don't read that in a conspiratorial sense, just in a rational "can someone explain this to me" sense.

His foundation is one of, if not the leading actors in the world in this field, and Gates himself is very involved in the work.
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