Bill Gates: What both libertarian "Plandemic" theorists and liberal sjw's fail to understand

 

There are very real and legitimate criticisms to make about billionaire, Microsoft founder, and outspoken Malthusian, Bill Gates. He does not need to be a mustache-twirling, cartoonish villain in order to be considered evil. He has been at the forefront of pushing further privatization and destroying whatever is left of New York's public sector; in particular, he has been attacking New York's public schools and teachers unions for several years now, while using his charity, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to enrich and advance private schools. He is also one of the world's leading funders of privatized healthcare in West Africa. And along with other NGOs such as Oxfam, the Gates Foundation acts as a means for the capitalist-imperialist class to leverage debt onto African nations by lending them money at unreasonably high rates of interest, bleeding the continent dry economically as Wall Street accumulates over half of its wealth and holds back its development. For instance, his charity has worked to undermine and decimate African agricultural sectors by forcing them to become indebted to Monsanto through the subsidization of Monsanto-produced seeds. Not to mention, and as Danny Haiphong points out in an article for the Black Agenda Report, "Bill Gates is a capitalist mogul whose Microsoft corporation is at the forefront of the U.S.-backed genocide in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has killed over six million people since 1996."

Both libertarian "Plandemic" conspiracy theorists and liberal sjw's are wrong about Bill Gates because both do not understand the profit motive and the private property ideology that is inherent to capitalism; indeed, both sides have no real understanding of class. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage on at the time of this writing, along with the tensions and political divides over safety precautions, Bill Gates continues to be a ridiculous fixation for both libertarian and liberal-leaning personalities alike. To the "Plandemic" conspiracy theorists who insist that the pandemic is a hoax, Bill Gates is their favourite go-to strawman who is essentially "evil incarnate" and a "Jewish reptilian overlord" who will implant "vaccine-injected microchips into our brains." Liberals on the other hand see him as a harmless, "humanitarian", "altruistic", "generous", billionaire "superhero" with a "heart of gold," who really only ever has African women's "best interests at heart" when he complains that Africa has an "overpopulation problem." 

The dishonesty and vitriol from both sides is very laughable if not extreme. You can make a reasonable and principled criticism of Bill Gates and his charity, and the "Plandemic" theorists -- who like to use him as an excuse to deny material reality and scientific knowledge -- will still accuse you of defending and supporting him in addition to being a "brainwashed sheeple" who needs to "wake the fuck up," all because you don't buy their conspiracy theories. Meanwhile, the liberals, who endlessly fawn and gush over him, will accuse you of being a "conspiracy theorist", "anti-Semitic", and/or an "anti-abortion conservative" etc. If there is anything that both sides have in common -- of which there are many -- is that they both have the tendency to take real, systemic problems and turn them into sensationalist and emotionally-driven fantastical narratives that are neither analytical or grounded in material reality. In doing so, both ultimately absolve (whether it is intentionally or unintentionally) capitalism of any social ills. 

Yes, Bill Gates is most certainly no friend to the people, but that does not mean that the pandemic is a hoax and that all safety precautions such as masks should be disregarded; nor is he a "Jewish reptilian overlord" or a part of some "secret, shadowy Judeo-Bolshevik cabal". And yes, SARS-CoV2 is very real and is dangerous, and the conspiratorial nonsense surrounding it do deserve to be laughed at -- but that is also no reason to hold a candle to the billionaire. Then again, the rose-coloured glasses from which liberals see Bill Gates through should come as no surprise; after all, the billionaire himself is a liberal icon and the globalization godfather of Silicon Valley. His "success story" is yet another example of the feel-good, fallacious, "Lean In", "rags-to-riches" stories that the capitalists like to use when browbeating the working class.  Liberals are not Marxists or anti-imperialists, they have always been anti-populist, and, just like their right-wing counterparts, they intend to save and preserve the capitalist system.

Now of course, and as I've stated previously, arguing with anti-science pandemic denialists is futile and tantamount to getting embroiled into arguments with the Flat Earth Society over astrology. However, there are a certain number of self-identified "Marxists," "anti-imperialists," and/or "leftists" who have embraced pandemic denialism and other bizarre libertarian conspiratorial nonsense which ultimately uphold individualism and individual civil liberties -- all of which are at odds with collective rights, class struggle, historical progress, and dialectical materialism. To further discredit any legitimate criticism of Bill Gates -- which the ordinary layperson would otherwise accept if properly educated -- some of these so-called "leftists" who've embraced anti-scientific knowledge have also gone as far as to adopt anti-people rhetoric that is typical of libertarians and Ayn Randian works, using condescending and derogatory terms such as: "sheeple", "the mob", "faceless featureless mob", "common herd", "lowest common denominators", "useless eaters", etc. Whereas Bill Gates is venerated as a comic book "superhero" in the eyes of liberals, he is, as already stated above, a comic book "evil supervillain" in the eyes of pandemic denialists. In either case, Bill Gates and the capitalist-imperialist class by extension are, essentially, completely invincible, and the global masses are all just simply unintelligent 'beasts of burden' who have no potential to seize power or fight back, according to both anti-people groups. Although liberals are under the illusion that the system does offer equal opportunity and "it's just a few bad apples" or a "few broken institutions", "leftist" conspiracy theorists on the other hand are almost the mirror opposite since they are immersed in defeatist and fatalistic fantasies -- which still end up serving capital either way. Why even bother doing anything at all if strawman-of-the-day Bill Gates is such an invincible, all-powerful supervillain?

Even more baffling is when these purported "leftists" find themselves on the same side as anti-union liberal and conservative politicians, as well as the union-busting CEO's such as Jeff Bezos (also a liberal) and their favourite strawman Bill Gates. In addition to teachers unions and the parents who support them, other labour unions, grocery store workers, meat packing plant workers, and other minimum wage essential workers are among those in the frontline (and not just nurses and other medical workers) who are demanding better safety precautions and financial safety nets. Having said that: since when did collective health and safety concerns suddenly become "bourgeois" or "only a middle class thing" and therefore something deserving of backhanded dismissal? To accuse unions of being "in on it" with Bill Gates and the "New World Order" is absurd and anti-worker. Neoliberal governments and billionaires already do not care for the well-being of the masses, let alone whether or not masses of workers dropped dead like flies within one year, make no mistake; the economy and, even more importantly, profits will always come first under capitalism. And so, isn't it counter-intuitive to attack regular everyday people's show of concern in their collective effort to stay alive, stay healthy, and protect each other from a deadly virus through the simple act of wearing a mask? Attacking the collective is exactly the kind of thing that is to be expected from liberals, rightists, libertarians, and billionaires such as Bill Gates. Bill Gates may not be a pandemic denialist, but he is otherwise your 'friend' when it comes to vulgar anti-populism.

Bill Gates has no plans whatsoever to give any vaccines to the poor, nor has he ever truly cared about public health. There is, however, a much more plausible explanation, which is much more in line with capitalist logic, behind his lofty sentiments that seem to espouse "freedom of choice" when it comes to the world's health, and none of which have anything to do with "vaccine-injected microchips in the brain". Being a part of the Silicon Valley-Rockefeller division of the U.S. capitalist-imperialist class -- the side that typically supports the Democrats -- Bill Gates is most likely working with the other capitalists of his division to compete with the AmWay-Hobby Lobby division (the side that typically supports the Republicans) in putting money towards a U.S. private pharmaceutical company in producing a vaccine. If any one of these U.S. private pharmaceutical companies "wins the race" on U.S. soil and happens to develop it before the WHO-led international effort does, the patent will belong to that U.S. private company and then they will be able to charge however much they want, which will be extremely expensive, to the people around the world who desperately need a vaccine. Of course, that means that it will be very inaccessible to so many people because it's essentially medical extortion. Meanwhile, the WHO-led, collaborative international effort would make such an attempt at medical extortion impossible because the COVID-19 vaccine would be readily available and accessible to everyone across the world. 

In short, neither Bill Gates nor any fantastical, anti-scientific, conspiratorial David Icke nonsense will bring anyone out of the current global crisis. As 'boring' as it may sound, and as repetitive as it can be, the profit motive is and will always be key for as long as capitalism exists and for as long as the American Empire lives. Until it is finally put to an end on a global scale, capitalism will continue its natural and inevitable course in its alternating periods of 'boom and bust'. It is also the rate of profit, not some "secret Satanic Jewish cabal led by Bill Gates" etc., that is instrumental in predicting when economic crises are going to happen. That is just the reality of the global capitalist system with the global dictatorship of the United States as its hegemony: it is admittedly more boring than Hollywood movies. That doesn't mean that it isn't more sinister, of course, because it is much more insidious; but again, it also doesn't mean that it is completely invincible. If you think that a "secret cabal of reptilian Satanic Jewish overlords" runs the world and that Bill Gates has a personal vendetta against you as an individual, and yet you still insist that you are a "Marxist", "anti-imperialist", or a "leftist",  then how are you any different from the liberals (especially the Bill Gates fans) you claim to hate who also do not see the base superstructure of capitalism as the root of exploitation and the world's problems?