FinnFooted

I linked a research paper, an article interviewing Africans, and a third article outlining all the unintended consequences of bill gates program. The problem with his program is not just that it didn't focus on education. It's that Bill Gates got to decide where the majority of money for medical purposes was in sub Saharan Africa in a way that actually limited medical care outside of very specific programs that the bill and Melinda gates deemed important and had unintended consequences. Honestly, the big part that I haven't honed on enough is the aspect of how much control this gives Bill Gates has over peoples lives. He's a major donor to the UN health agency and the WHO and has a huge amount of power there that he actually sways to dictate policy. He has huge sway over who lives and who dies. I'm glad you're confident Bill Gates didn't just land in Africa without support from leaders of African countries and thus and inferred "support from Africans". But you and I both know that his huge wealth creates a weird power imbalance with whoever he donates to and I argue that he exercises that power imbalance in a negative way to do what he thinks is best for others instead of asking people what's best for them.

And, honestly, his vaccination and anti malraia programs saved crazy amounts of lives. I'm not here to act like his philanthropy did nothing to save lives. I'm here to argue that individual men trying to save whole continents by throwing money at problems in ways that also gives them influence and control over a population doesn't absolve them of their other sins, this isn't the most effective way to actually save lives, this has unintended consequences that actually costs some lives, and generally how bill gates uses his foundation isn't how world problems should be handled.

You say at least he spends money on programs unlike others. But I argue that this doesn't make him good because he doesn't do it from a place of good or do it in a good way. he doesnt actually pay attention or care about his philanthropy. He was pressured into becoming philanthropic by his mom and, after she died, his dad who then handled it. He only got active after he stepped down as the head of Microsoft (because he was forced down after anti trust shit) and I argue he stayed for the power he gained after he lost power at Microsoft. Much of his foundation money actually goes... To other large companies (like Monsanto, MasterCard, and Vodafone). So, on top of everything, his philanthropy has a huge "giant capitalist companies will save the world" twist to it when we should be focusing on universal health care.

Also, to be detailed on the AIDS thing, the reduction in transmission by 60% is highly controversial in the science community. The research was extremely flawed. There was a lot of skepticism in the science community before and for good reason. And, don't get me wrong, circumcision probably does decrease the spread of sexually transmitted HIV by reducing the likelyhood a man will get HIV from vaginal sex and then spread it... And HIV is down some so part of some anti HIV program actually was successful. But I'll also leave this reddit comment here as it highlights a lot of journal articles that indicate it wasn't circumcision.

Bill gates is not a good guy. Bill Gates is a guy who throws his unethically obtained eboranant wealth at issues in a way that gives him control and actually hinders non capitalistic universal health care which would arguably be more effective. Many times it works out. But it also warped.

Seriously there 2 hours of a behind the bastards episode on this that organizes everything much better than I can on Lemmy.

Bill Gates has saved 50 million lives according to Bill Gates. But his business and philanthropy practices have directly and indirectly led to degradation of quality of life and death in such complex ways we can't even put a number on it.

Because Bill Gates, and generally philanthropy from people of his generation, want to throw money at a problem without asking the people they are trying to help how to help them. When you just try to save people without including them in the process because you think you know better than them what's best for them, there's usually pretty unintended and bad side effects.

So, not only was he a pretty cut throat and immoral business man, but even when he tries to buy his way into being a good person with the money he makes from his business practices that rely on monopolies and unethically cheap labor, he fucks it up.

Bill gates put a lot of effort into making monopolies. He tried to stomp out Linux. And, part of his whole weird philantrophy was trying to circumcise the men of Africa to save them from aids but inadvertanly likely increased the spread of aids which is just one case study in how his foundation can help but also does harmful bananas shit.

Listen to the behind the bastards on him. Warren buffet might get a pass if you squint, but Bill Gates is a bastard.

Edit: I would like to say that "increased the spread of aids" is probably misleading in that I make it sound like the program overall increased AIDS in Africa. That is not true. There is controversial evidence that circumcision may decrease the spread of AIDS. There's controversial evidence that circumcision led the risky behavior in circumcised men who felt they were immune after circumcision. The data, since its an uncontrollable population study, is messy. But, Bills foundation involvent in Africa has had many unintended consequences across the continent that has saves some lives and cost others and no one man should have such strong say on the health policies of an entire continent. Personally, I also feel very strongly no one man should have such strong sway on campaigns which result is mass surgery on the genitals of an entirely different group of men when there are arguably better ways to mitigate disease transmission.

I have mixed feelings. His gist is basically that he agrees billionaires shouldn't exist and that there's no ethical billionaire and he wants reforms to make it so they don't. But he argues that we live in a system where billionaires are inevitable and that it would be stupid not to invest wisely and make billions if he can because if he doesn't someone else just will and he can use the money for good.

However, even if you buy this narrative of good billionaire, you can just look to his ties will Bill Gates and the Bill and Melinda gates foundation to see that, even if he did mean well, his perception on how to do good is completely twisted.

Direct action is one if not the most important ways to enact change. But I don't know where this idea that voting doesn't matter came from. Theres more than 1 way to skin a cat. Look around you. Look at this shit show of change happening in the US. That is the result of a bloc of voters who went to the polls in November. Voting does have consequences and can cause change... for better or worse.

I get your concern in a sense because kids in Rochester do have it pretty rough. While crime stats in the us and NY are down, violent crime Rochester specifically has stayed pretty steady since the 90s and is higher than national and NY crime levels.

But I don't think this will be the thing that impacts these kids and school districts the most. The issues Rochester face come from poor incentive management for schools, high teacher burnout and poor employee retention, large classroom sizes, issues with corruption within specific school systems, and concentrations of low socioeconomic people.

I need to admit I left the public education world in NY a while ago. But it used to be that the worse a school performed the less money it got. Because schools only get a small percentage of funding from the federal government that gets pulled from them when they underperform (I very quickly looked at the numbers and it appears Rochester gets less than the national % average in federal funding, about 10% compared to the national 13% depending on what year you're looking at). So schools with students who needed the most help either lost money or just tried to cover up student issues to hide them instead of address them. As long as this and property tax funding is the model and admin dictates their own salaries, schools aren't going to improve.

IMO, it's even specifically DEI policies that briefly helped some schools excel in the us during school bussing. Bussing students forced integration of students from all different backgrounds and socioeconomic groups. Rich and attentive parents with more bandwidth made sure whatever school their kid was at was well funded and well run. Kids from different backgrounds became friends and humanized each other. Kids from poor backgrounds were offered support systems outside of gangs and violence. And these poor kids didn't poison the well and bring crime to their new schools. Kids are kids. If you offer them opportunities, they don't choose gangs and violence.

What will really fix schools and improve things for kids

• small class sizes (15 kids MAX)
• force integration
• better support for teachers
• free school lunches
• statewide tax funding instead of property tax

Some seeds need physical or chemical stress to actually germinate. You need rough them up with acid or fire or just sandpaper.

I still don't think this is a brilliant way to spread seeds. But there are some seeds it wouldn't destroy.

NYC hates Cuomo though. They hated him before the scandal.

Two low glycoalkaloid varieties are unlikely to create a high glycoalkaloid variety (and its unlikely to find a high glycoalkaloid variety outside of south America. But it's possible. Like two short people having a tall child.

Also its probably sterile.

If you want to pollinate it to collect seed (debatable if that's a good decision), use an electric toothbrush. The pollen needs the vibrations of a pollinator to be released.

I find the 33/33/33 rule works. 33% of people just like authoritarianism during this period of history. I'm not sure if that's a constant or because of the current climate making people stressed and weird. But they feel safer when someone says they're going to take control and fix everything and they feel like they don't have to think about it beyond that. They will agree with anything their in group says because it soothes them. These are your cultists.

Another 33% are just checked out. They're stressed in the same way, but instead of turning to an authoritarian to fix the problem they just bury their head in the sand. They feel like they're too small to fix anything so why even try. These people sometimes still vote if its convenient enough and are complete wildcards when they do because they really have no clue what's happening. They vote on vibes. This is also where trolls tend to sit.

That just leaves just 33% of people who are paying attention and either aren't stressed and have the emotional bandwidth, have interest, or have the persistence to pay attention even when stressed to try and do something to stop the authoritarianism (even if that's just vote).

This leaves 1% which is the literal 1% trying to pull the strings.

All these articles are pure hopeium. I check his approval rating daily hoping my country will gain some sense. His approval is higher than his first term. Half the population has has their brains turned to scrambled eggs by social media. And I get the irony of saying this on social media.

People are impressionable and the tech bros who control movement of information have fallen in line behind Trump. It's going to be a bumpy ride y'all.