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Ross Stevens Donates $100M to Pay Every US Olympian and Paralympian $200k

townandcountrymag.com

131–140 of 191 posts

Re: Ross Stevens Donates $100M to Pay Every US Olympian and Paralympian $200k

#131
post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would have never guessed that a significant portion of western society would not only be ok with killing thousands of children but be outraged that anyone would protest it. I feel like I have more information about the world than ever and understand it less than ever.

I'm surprised that a significant portion of western society has any sympathy for the Palestinian side after October 7. Hamas started a war and used a bunch of heinous tactics -- kidnapping and murdering a bunch of random civilians, putting bases in hospitals, stealing food aid, and so on. Israel tries to avoid casualties when they can. For example when Hamas launches rockets at Israeli civilian targets, they shoot th…

>Israel is fighting with a significantly higher amount of restraint and morality than their opponent

Gaza would not be starving were this the case, and you should be ashamed of yourself for suggesting otherwise.

Re: Ross Stevens Donates $100M to Pay Every US Olympian and Paralympian $200k

#132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would have never guessed that a significant portion of western society would not only be ok with killing thousands of children but be outraged that anyone would protest it. I feel like I have more information about the world than ever and understand it less than ever.

Estimates for deaths we caused in Iraq range from the low hundreds of thousands to the millions, and that's going to be overwhelmingly civilians. [1] And given those are all very short time estimates (generally 2003-2007), and since many studies are from violent deaths only (excluding subsequent caused famine/disease/despair/etc) the millions is likely closer to the mark than not. Compare that to the death toll in an…

> deaths we caused in Iraq

Doesn’t much change the horrible situation but overwhelming majority of them were indirect.

Not quite the same as carpet bombing a densely inhabited city.

Also well.. if you look at Sadam’s death toll in the 80s and 90s it isn’t really lower. Rather a low standard of course…

Re: Ross Stevens Donates $100M to Pay Every US Olympian and Paralympian $200k

#133
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(1) If you are going to protest something, you need to show up with an answer to the question: “well, what should they have done?” (2) That doesn’t matter to the situation at hand. The protests on college campuses got WAY out of hand and disrupted the purpose of the institution: teaching.

(1) The answer is simple: Stop the genocide in Gaza by any means necessary. The US has the power to do that with its proxy Israel. (2) Reading that I wonder if you also supported violent dismissals of Vietnam war protests

Not what I was asking about. What should Israel have done in response to Oct 7th? What would be the downstream effects?

What should a country do when a neighbor invades and massacres entire towns, live-streaming the violent deaths and rapes for the world to see? What is the correct response to this?

You have clearly not thought through the game theory and repercussions of what you are suggesting.

Like many college protesters, you would do well to understand the complexity of the mechanics of the real world, and understand that reality ain’t rainbows and butterflies.

I have no clue how you drew the Vietnam war protest thing from what I wrote.

Re: Ross Stevens Donates $100M to Pay Every US Olympian and Paralympian $200k

#134
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(1) If you are going to protest something, you need to show up with an answer to the question: “well, what should they have done?” (2) That doesn’t matter to the situation at hand. The protests on college campuses got WAY out of hand and disrupted the purpose of the institution: teaching.

(1) The answer is simple: Stop the genocide in Gaza by any means necessary. The US has the power to do that with its proxy Israel. (2) Reading that I wonder if you also supported violent dismissals of Vietnam war protests

> by any means necessary

Not that carpet bombing a densely populated city wasn’t extremely horrible were there any better was to destroy or at least massively weaken Hamas?

For that matter Hamas could have stopped the Israeli atrocities any time they wanted, they chose not to.

Re: Ross Stevens Donates $100M to Pay Every US Olympian and Paralympian $200k

#135
post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surprised that a significant portion of western society has any sympathy for the Palestinian side after October 7. Hamas started a war and used a bunch of heinous tactics -- kidnapping and murdering a bunch of random civilians, putting bases in hospitals, stealing food aid, and so on. Israel tries to avoid casualties when they can. For example when Hamas launches rockets at Israeli civilian targets, they shoot th…

>Israel is fighting with a significantly higher amount of restraint and morality than their opponent Gaza would not be starving were this the case, and you should be ashamed of yourself for suggesting otherwise.

Please don’t be absurd.. or are you one of the people pretending that the October 7th attacks didn’t happen or that the victims somehow deserved it?

What Israel ended up doing in Gaza ended up being extremely horrible.

But what options did they really have? Not doing anything would have been the same(or worse) than the US ignoring 9/11… Hamas on the other hand had the option to stop the war at anytime they wanted, the chose not to.

Re: Ross Stevens Donates $100M to Pay Every US Olympian and Paralympian $200k

#136
post #122
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think you should think of it as a paycheck. Delaying a normal career to compete in the olympics will set your career and earning potential back by a few years. This money tries to balance it out a bit.

The stated goal is that the money will help people do better in the Olympics. I don't see how it will do that. It might be good to do, but it won't help people perform better.

> The stated goal is that the money will help people do better in the Olympics.

Are you sure? It's not contingent on metals or anything.

https://www.usopc.org/news/2025/march/04/united-states-olymp...

Re: Ross Stevens Donates $100M to Pay Every US Olympian and Paralympian $200k

#137
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What people feel about things is almost an entirely a function of their information environment, rather than the facts of the events themselves. Almost nobody truly aware of the number of slaughtered and starved Palestinian children would be "okay" with it; the people defending it are more-or-less viewing these events in terms so different from that that those basic facts cannot reach their understanding at all.

> Almost nobody truly aware of the number of slaughtered and starved Palestinian children would be "okay" with it A lot of people aren’t okay with it but also choose not to engage on it.

The Onion’ Stands With Israel Because It Seems Like You Get In Less Trouble For That

https://theonion.com/the-onion-stands-with-israel-because-it...

Re: Ross Stevens Donates $100M to Pay Every US Olympian and Paralympian $200k

#138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Israel is fighting with a significantly higher amount of restraint and morality than their opponent Gaza would not be starving were this the case, and you should be ashamed of yourself for suggesting otherwise.

Please don’t be absurd.. or are you one of the people pretending that the October 7th attacks didn’t happen or that the victims somehow deserved it? What Israel ended up doing in Gaza ended up being extremely horrible. But what options did they really have? Not doing anything would have been the same(or worse) than the US ignoring 9/11… Hamas on the other hand had the option to stop the war at anytime they wanted, th…

> But what options did they really have?

Not kick a dog for decades upon decades and act suprised when it bit back?

It's been a shitty situation all round, since the fall of Beersheba if not before, but its a difficult ask to want all to believe October 7th came out of nowhere.

Re: Ross Stevens Donates $100M to Pay Every US Olympian and Paralympian $200k

#139
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(1) The answer is simple: Stop the genocide in Gaza by any means necessary. The US has the power to do that with its proxy Israel. (2) Reading that I wonder if you also supported violent dismissals of Vietnam war protests

Not what I was asking about. What should Israel have done in response to Oct 7th? What would be the downstream effects? What should a country do when a neighbor invades and massacres entire towns, live-streaming the violent deaths and rapes for the world to see? What is the correct response to this? You have clearly not thought through the game theory and repercussions of what you are suggesting. Like many college pr…

First, genocide is not necessary response. Second, Israel hard right was working on that and moving toward genocide for years.

Re: Ross Stevens Donates $100M to Pay Every US Olympian and Paralympian $200k

#140
post #50

The real answer here is that he is mad about people protesting what Israel is doing in Gaza. This $100M donation is being made with funds he had given to UPenn. He has taken it back, via lawyers, because they allowed the protests to go on. He is now just taking that original donation and moving it somewhere else. Not that I am against the Olympians getting paid, just some context. Sources: https://philanthropynewsdig…

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