Now is a good time to flood Wikipedia with donations. For the first time in my life, i have just donated to them and will do so again. You can do it too for a minimum of €2, no requirement for recurring donations or any nonsense.

        • The Giant Korean@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          6
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          Why? They’re either born with the money or make the money, but either way the money has turned them into terrible people.

          • Maven (famous)@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            23
            ·
            1 year ago

            I’d argue that you have to be horrible already to have loads of money. Any reasonably good person would be using their excess wealth for a good cause rather than building ego rockets.

            • The Giant Korean@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              1 year ago

              Money = power, and power corrupts. I’m sure there are some people who are horrible before they become wealthy, but I think money (and power) has a way of blunting peoples’ empathy.

              • decisivelyhoodnoises@sh.itjust.works
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                1 year ago

                Normal people stop exploiting others before they reach having unfathomable amounts of money. So somebody with different values and morals will never have so much money since it is impossible to make such money without being corrupt and a piece of shit

          • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            8 months ago

            I’d be willing to take part in an experiment to confirm this hypothesis. I’ll wait for delivery, each day until 3.

        • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          11 months ago

          I mean, Musk was born fairly rich, but not like that. Most tech billionaires come from a sort of upper-middle-class to low-upper-class background, probably just because there’s not a lot of super rich families to start with. There are a few lower-class exceptions that prove the rule, although they can be hard to pin down because they all like to claim they grew up rough (and therefore earned their place by being better the peasants), and of course the heirs of other billionaires.

          As far as I can tell, they act about the way a random person would given their situation. You get power-drunk dicks like Elon Musk, but also philanthropists like Chuck Feeney (who gave it all away) and Bill Gates, while most just stay quiet and enjoy having unfathomable wealth (Bezos, Zuckerberg).

      • Showroom7561@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        25
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        No. Assholes are assholes, and Elon is just an asshole with money.

        Compare this man child to a billionaire like Yvon Chouinard, founder of the company Patagonia, and you’ll understand that money doesn’t change good people.

        • Rolivers@discuss.tchncs.de
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          10
          ·
          1 year ago

          No such thing as a good billionaire. The only variance is how good they are at maintaining their public image.

          • Showroom7561@lemmy.ca
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            4
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            Thanks for the video. That guy seems to go off on a lot of tangents, sets up too many strawman and red herring fallacies. He also doesn’t actually prove that Yvon is somehow evil in a way that’s comparable to Elon, or that he lied about anything.

            The only real criticism he had was to say that Yvon is purposely evading taxes and assigns that motive with absolute certainty (red herring).

            It sounds to me like Adam has a problem with the system. Hell, he even said that it doesn’t matter if good work is actually being done, because he doesn’t like the idea of billionaires using their money for good. Then he goes on to give an example using Walmart (not an ethical company) and Bill Gate’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein… bizarre how he even went there as a way to disprove what Yvon has done with the company.

            I’m not saying that Yvon or Patagonia are perfect. Heck, I don’t give a damn about the CEO of any company, and I think I only own one of their products, so I have no loyalties at all.

            But they are a for-profit business (they are very clear about that) who operates under some of the most ethical guidelines available, and they have a multi-decade proven track record of environmental stewardship and human labor practices.

            We need more companies like them, even if Adam doesn’t.

  • Carighan Maconar@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    129
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    Wikipedia should counter by offering Elon $4 to go towards paying off his massive hole from buying Twitter. 😂

    • Phen@lemmy.eco.br
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      13
      ·
      1 year ago

      He doesn’t need to pay. Twitter is already worth less than the debt, if he continues to break that company apart there’ll he no reason to even consider paying the debt off.

      • Kbin_space_program@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        8
        arrow-down
        4
        ·
        1 year ago

        The debt is a tax writeoff. The entire company is a tax writeoff for him and his clique.

        This will allow them to gain billions more without spending a cent in taxes.

      • stevehobbes@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        That’s not how debt works, he almost certainly pledged assets and a personal guarantee against it. This is known as collateral.

        The banks take the collateral when you stop paying.

        • Phen@lemmy.eco.br
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          The way I understood it is that he didn’t get a loan to buy the company, but had a bank itself buy Twitter as a loan, so Twitter itself is the collateral. That’s what I did when I bought my apartment: a bank bought it from the constructor and let me live in it while slowly buying it from them over hundreds of installments. If I stopped paying the bank would kick me out and sell the apartment to someone else.

          • stevehobbes@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            5
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            That isn’t quite right. If you stopped paying the bank would kick you out and sell the apartment to someone else, but if they get less than you owe them for it, they will also send you a bill for the remainder.

            And then sue you to get that money.

            Interestingly, if they get more than you owe them for it, they will cut you a check for the difference.

            But you are actually wrong about how and what the order of operations is.

            You are buying the house, the lender (bank) writes the check directly to the seller, and you sign a mortgage agreement for that much with the bank and they put a lien on your house. The bank does not own the house, you do. The bank owns a promissory note from you, backed by your personal wealth and credit and the value of the house (that they have a lien on).

            In the case of Twitter, yes, Twitter itself is part of the collateral, but so was Elon musks personal wealth and Tesla shares.

            • Phen@lemmy.eco.br
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              1 year ago

              I forgot to mention I’m not American so some things might be different in my case, but you’re right in general.

  • alienanimals@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    116
    arrow-down
    8
    ·
    1 year ago

    Downvote Musk spam.

    The billionaire doesn’t need your help ensuring him and his businesses stay in the 24 hour news cycle. Don’t be a useful idiot.

    • nadram@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      22
      arrow-down
      5
      ·
      1 year ago

      Sorry i wasn’t in the loop when we decided to stop talking about the town clown. I guess I’ll stop being an idiot now. Thanks for the advice.

  • Teon@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    98
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    We already have Dickopedia elon, it’s called twitter and YOU paid $44 billion for it.
    ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

  • ares35@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    96
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    wikipedia foundation’s financials are solid, stable, and healthy.

    how’s twitter doing lately, elon?

    • Gigan@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      arrow-down
      41
      ·
      1 year ago

      wikipedia foundation’s financials are solid, stable, and healthy.

      Are they though? They’re asking for money constantly

      • 21Cabbage@lemmynsfw.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        51
        ·
        1 year ago

        I mean, donations are their only income so they have to ask but that doesn’t mean they don’t get enough.

        • Chee_Koala@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          37
          ·
          1 year ago

          I checked their reported expenses and couldn’t really find anything they “blow” money on. Their revenue is smaller than a midsize EU football team, and considering the value comparison between the two, that makes me think either we disagree completely, you have extra info that you did not share, or I don’t understand you.

          • Aatube@kbin.social
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            15
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            I mean, I’m not sure what they use all that money to develop, but they definitely don’t need all this money to just develop and sustain. Despite activity having hit its peak in the 2000s, spending continues to increase, and extensive feature request and enhancement backlog still stands while developers focus on whatever the foundation’s whim is. Not to mention there’s some controversy over the Tides Foundation.

  • Taco2112@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    77
    ·
    1 year ago

    So he’s offering that money to name it after himself?

    I’m not even clicking on that link, I never click on stuff with that turd’s name on the headline, just wanted to make the joke.

    • Paradachshund
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      1 year ago

      Even better, tell him sure thing, send the money, and then just don’t change it.

    • Dkarma@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      1 year ago
      1. Rename to elonpedia for a day
      2. Demand the billion dollars
      3. Find a young attorney to sue pro bono on the grounds that Elon is a dick
      4. Laugh about the fact musk has to pay attorneys to defend himself in court.
      5. ???
      6. Profit.
  • Conyak@lemmy.tf
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    68
    ·
    1 year ago

    More evidence to support taxing the fuck out of billionaires. No one needs that much money.

    • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      More that it’s a confirmation that having money doesn’t make you a good person.

    • paintbucketholder@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      There’s not one single person in the world who should own a thousand million dollars, never mind hundreds of thousands of millions of dollars.

      The pure existence of billionaires is unethical and immoral - doesn’t matter whether they’re being stupid and fascist in public, or quietly pulling strings and bending society to their will in the background.

      • HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        But I want to quietly pull the strings of society so everyone can have food and housing security, get rid of food deserts, and end Elon Musk personally. Like, with my hands. Give me a billion dollars

      • OrnatePotato@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Tangential, but I’ve always wondered why in English 10^9 is one billion. 10^6 is one million. Twice as many zeroes should be one billion. Three times as many, one trillion, etc.

        • Logi@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Only in English is this weird naming system used and originally only in American English. You can put it in the pile over there with the miles and pounds and other oddities.

          Other languages have milliard between million and billion, billiard after billion etc.

  • rawn@feddit.de
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    53
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    He’s trying to distract from the probe into Tesla’s range. It’s working.

        • u/unhappy_grapefruit_2@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          Are they really tho it just seems to me like you just really don’t like anyone with a differing opinion after a quick glance through your comments I could be wrong dare I say but after looking through your comments it looks like you think anyone remotely right wing is a big nazis facist boogeyman sure there are some people out there with those beliefs but there generally quite small in numbers

            • u/unhappy_grapefruit_2@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              0
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              edit-2
              1 year ago

              Define nazi for me tell me what does the word nazi mean and do this without searching it up I also want you to read my comment again as nothing I’ve said makes me a nazi tankie or any other political extremist