• Billiam@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      As a wise man recently said,

      They tried to rig the game, but you can’t fake influence.

      Money can buy everything but it can’t buy respect. Nobody respects Musk getting to level 90+ in SSF HC PoE2 because he just bought his way there. Nobody respects him on Twitter, because he bought his way there. Nobody respects Tesla, because (say it with me kids) he bought his way there.

      • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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        3 months ago

        Money can absolutely buy respect the problem is fuckwad is too stupid to know how, for example he could bankroll building functional replicas of historic vehicles and weapons for museums which would earn him some respect. That’s assuming he doesn’t want to help the poor and build public libraries like Rockefeller or Carnegie.

    • Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      What gets me is that he has the means to become the most beloved man in history pretty much on a whim. I can’t even begin to comprehend the amount of good he could do by dumping half his fortune into good causes, which would still leave him with orders of magnitude more money than he’d need to buy/do whatever the fuck he wants with.

      The attention he craves is right there. But he chooses instead to be a villain. Why?? Be a fucking superhero - even if it’s for completely selfish reasons, humanity won’t give shit.

      I don’t get it.

      If I randomly obtained a billion dollars, let alone hundreds of billions, I’d spend the rest of my life riding a warm-and-fuzzy high. Helping people feels good!

      • merc@sh.itjust.works
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        3 months ago

        Look at Bill Gates. He’s a complete asshole and was widely hated until he stepped down from Microsoft. But, spend just a small fraction of his fortune on charity, much of it self-serving, and he’s now he’s widely loved.

        If I randomly obtained a billion dollars, let alone hundreds of billions, I’d spend the rest of my life riding a warm-and-fuzzy high. Helping people feels good!

        The thing is, you don’t become a billionaire if you have empathy. If you’re a normal kind of person who likes helping other people, you start giving away your money long before you hit $1B.

        • Yardy Sardley@lemmy.ca
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          3 months ago

          In a functioning society, we wouldn’t have to rely on the “philanthropy” of rich people to fund good causes. It should not be possible for one person to hoard so much wealth that they get to personally decide which issues get ignored.

          • merc@sh.itjust.works
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            3 months ago

            I completely agree. It’s like one of those supposedly uplifting news items about a kid selling their rare stamp collection to pay for their bus driver’s surgery. Sure, it’s nice the kid did that, but what kind of dystopia are we in where someone with a steady job can’t get the health care they need.

        • Hemingways_Shotgun@lemmy.ca
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          3 months ago

          From what I understand, Musk was under investigation from multiple federal US agencies for malfeasance, I don’t know for what

          I’ll give you a hint. It starts with “e” and rhymes with “Epstein didn’t kill himself”…

      • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        He had that aura when he was building Tesla and solar city and the gigafactory. Become a billionaire and fight climate change? Go Elon.

        Go to Mars? Bit of a stretch goal, but helping Nasa and science is good. Go Elon.

        Save kids trapped underground? Go Elon.

        What? Called him a pedophile? Maybe he has some inside knowledge. Anyway.

        Shout about doge coin? Bit weird. Ok he’s just having fun.

        Sell a consumer grade flamethrower? What?

        Pay 44bn for Twitter? What? Where’s the value? This doesn’t save the world.

        And down and down.

        • 5too@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Bill Gates makes a strong argument for becoming beloved while you’re still around to enjoy it.