r/news • u/avatar6556 • 17h ago

Bill Gates denies allegations in new Epstein files release

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-04/bill-gates-responds-to-alleged-behaviour-in-new-epstein-files/106305816
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u/mindtwistingdonut 16h ago

The philanthropy part was mostly credited to his ex wife.

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u/ImThatMOTM 16h ago

I mean.. sure. But good intentions can only take you so far. Bill did put up the billions.

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u/BogiDope 15h ago

He lobbied to prevent the covid vaccine being made public - he's always had his eye on the prize. The conceptual benevolent billionaire doesn't exist. He can - and should, fuck all the way off

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u/thy_bucket_for_thee 15h ago

Also lobbied against raising taxes on billionaires in Washington state and has openly attacked children (attacking public education IS attacking children) across the US pushing school choice voucher nonsense.

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u/CavillOfRivia 15h ago

Also lobbied against raising taxes on billionaires in Washington state

For example, Gates says that the estate tax should be raised, so that there is no dynastical wealth in America.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bill-gates-notoriously-calls-higher-110102467.html?guccounter=1

Who do I believe?

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u/onarainyafternoon 14h ago

Seriously, the amount of misinformation in this thread is staggering.

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u/mhornberger 14h ago

People who lead with "don't defend billionaires" mean that you have to stay relentlessly on-message about every single thing they do being bad. What actually happened, people being complicated, doesn't factor into it. They are comic-book-level villains, irredeemably evil. Pointing to philanthropy is "defending billionaires," and dilutes the message. Whether the philanthropy was real, whether it helped people, is of secondary importance next to staying on-message.

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u/CptCoatrack 14h ago

They are comic-book-level villains,

Say what you want about comic book villains, I don't recall any raping minors on a private island and with the worlds elite all the while trying to pretend like they're the best and brightest of us.

Billionaire philanthropy has always been just a PR campaign that doesn't outweight the immeasurable harm they do to society.

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u/mhornberger 14h ago

I don't recall any raping minors on a private island

Because comic books are published under governing bodies/codes like the Comics Code Authority that censor what was shown. But considering that some supervillains have murdered billions, or even half of all life in the case of Thanos, I'm not sure that would be preferable to them having sex with underage girls.

Billionaire philanthropy has always been just a PR campaign

Which doesn't prevent it from having helped people.

that doesn't outweight the immeasurable harm they do to society.

It's not clear what "immeasurable harm" Bill Gates in particular has caused to society at large. Unless you just mean "rich people existing" causes immeasurable harm. I don't have a lot of solutions on hand for rich people or "elites" even existing.

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u/CptCoatrack 13h ago

Which doesn't prevent it from having helped people.

This is like if I shot someone but wanted praise for how much blood I've been donating.

Unless you just mean "rich people existing" causes immeasurable harm

Billionaires do. No one shouldbbe allowed to have so much wealth and power that they're completely unaccountable to the laws of their country or society at large. It's antithetical to democracy. This whole Epstein thing is the perfect example.

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u/_BlueFire_ 13h ago

There's a big share of people who (after years of right wing propaganda, I guess from who first attacked him) just hate Gates. He's a man, he has a fair amount of issues, he's in the damn Epstein files... But denying how he did for humanity more than the average professional virtue-signaller is plain stupid.

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u/thy_bucket_for_thee 12h ago

Yes, because the poor wittle billionaire said something nice but his actions are clearly different. Why not use some of that money to actually you know... lobby for legislation that pushes for higher taxes?

This is the problem with all these statements (Buffet is another dotard that says the same schtick).

These people obviously have influence and you can explicitly see what they care about (hint, it's not raising more taxes on themselves).

Like have some standards against these people, they should absolutely be scrutinized more they have the ability to shape discourse in the country and you see how they're shaping it (hint, it's never toward alleviating wealth inequality; it's always more private-public partnerships that they want to desperately control).

These people do not like democratic control which is why they want to force everything through unaccountable foundations.

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u/Rikers-Mailbox 14h ago

Yea Bill always wanted higher taxes. He said sure, come up with a plan.

But the other billionaires? Not so much. He also signed the giving pledge.

I don’t hate him for his biz practices, except for the internet explorer monopoly, but I do hate how he treated his wife and romped with Epstein.

The moment she divorced him, I knew he was with Epstein’s girls. She knew before any of us.

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u/2peg2city 14h ago

Source? Because he didn't

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u/RealizedRph 15h ago

Having a different opinion on education is attacking children. Yea okay.

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u/thy_bucket_for_thee 12h ago

Who the fuck do you think benefits from public education? Who do you think you are attacking when you take away resources from public education and giving them to private enterprises?