worth highlighting too that Bill Gates’ biggest intellectual influence is Steven Pinker who, in addition to dabbling in race science in 2006, aided the defense of Jeffery Epstein at his 2007 child sex trafficking trial at the request of Alan Dershowitz buzzfeednews.com/article/petera… 
Pinker, like Gates, frequently socialized with Epstein after Epstein’s conviction and release from prison. Which is morally relevant but also speaks to the broader ideology-building of elite immunity. They are bound by different rules— after all, Pinker’s...
whole schtick is that the super rich are doing a bang up and job and don’t need to be accountable to anyone. Clearly Gates—who effectively runs global health policy and, more or less for years, domestic education policy—doesn’t need to answer to anyone.
This is why in our episode on Steven Pinker from 2018 we noted his still socializing with Epstein as late as 2014 because it isn’t just that it speaks to moral turpitude, it’s that it speaks to ideology—elites are inherently superior and exist outside normal mores and laws
Gates gets to control the bulk of public health & development in Africa because he’s rich, ergo he’s clearly the person to do it. That he is accountable to NO ONE, and was never voted for by a single African is immaterial. His wealth, by definition, makes him a legitimate viceroy
As the adage goes, asking if a billionaire is “a good person” is like asking if a feudal lord or prince is a good person. it’s completely irrelevant; they should never have that much arbitrary power in the first place. No one voted for Bill Gates and he answers to no one.
Which is more or less the thesis of @LinseyMcgoey’s excellent book on Gates you should definitely read if you haven’t. Laid it all out before it was cool versobooks.com/books/2344-no-…
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