Bonum Certa Men Certa

You Just Know Somebody is in a State of Retreat When the Strategy Becomes to Discredit One's Critics (or Collectively Paint Them All as Wrong/Crazy)



Potpourri of nonsense from pusher of stuff FDA rejects or has not approved

Fresh pork and vegetable-stuffed sausage meat

Summary: A goulash of bullcrap from Bill Gates doesn't add up; it seems like his media strategy has warped (or fallen back) onto discrediting his critics as though they don't exist, don't know anything, or are simply jealous

THIS morning I noticed something rather spectacular. Bill Gates has shifted from pandemic salesmanship to attempts to discredit all of his critics. Of course he's helped by the fact that k00ks do exist out there and certainly spread misinformation (like "QAnon"). But as we've been saying all along, he's facing an uphill battle if he plans to paint everyone with the same broad brush and getting social control media giants/monopolies to censor/block/shadowban all of his critics is infeasible; it simply doesn't scale and cannot be rationalised. I therefore must conclude that he's running out of defenses and is now resorting to collective/en masse (large-scale) ad hominem; basically he's in retreat, having lost control of the narrative and public opinion (in spite of many media bribes).

The other day in IRC (#techrights) Ryan said: "Having Bill Gates' name plastered everywhere might be why the percentage saying they'd accept a vaccine is crashing. So it may well be doing more harm than good."

Separately he wrote: "Lots of Bill Gates bullshit on Fox Business about the virus. I was unaware that he went back to school and actually graduated, much less with a medical degree. ;)"

"...getting social control media giants/monopolies to censor/block/shadowban all of his critics is infeasible; it simply doesn't scale and cannot be rationalised."We've said many times before that the corporate media (bribed by Gates) associating the the vaccine with Gates would simply harm public health. The people won't accept it if the person putting these things in circulation is a profiteer (with lots to gain financially).

A lot of people point out that Gates is no expert in the area he speaks about. It's actually a lot worse than Gates being put on TV as if he's a medical 'expert' despite having zero qualifications. He's a profiteer and what he says is intended to help him make a profit. "Follow the money"-type interpretation by viewers then leads them to thinking even baseless stuff like, "what if he created it?" (he did not)

He keeps saying companies he invests in may have vaccine by year's end. Companies for him to profit from. It's not like Gates is known for generosity (ignore puff pieces he paid for); his lifelong track record shows endless greed and ruthlessness. Even people who knew him as a young person spoke about that.

We can't help wondering what actual experts think when they see Gates et al with their salesmanship on TV (without actual experts). It usually takes 10-15 years to properly develop and test vaccines, so optimistic predictions and an aggressive push to sell several doses per person are an invitation to join an experiment (partly facilitated already by the Gates-funded GAVI and collaborators who test things in the "global south", the clinical trials experiment zone with human subjects too poor to sue when things go wrong).

"We're not saying vaccination is bad; the very opposite is true. But to associate vaccination with people like Gates is harmful to everyone."The most frustrating facet about this whole thing is that corporate media is so toxic that it's happy to kill people (from diseases) if it means another buck... it could speak to actual experts, but instead it chose celebrities for irresponsible "marketing" disguised as journalism...

We're not saying vaccination is bad; the very opposite is true. But to associate vaccination with people like Gates is harmful to everyone. Gates-funded programs in South Africa have already come under scrutiny; if the vaccine fails and has serious long-term side effects, who will be held accountable?

Recent Techrights' Posts

Gemini Links 04/01/2025: Geminispace Contributions and Security Theatre
Links for the day
 
Links 04/01/2025: Social Control Media Deemed Very Unhealthy, Nick Clegg Leaves Zuckerberg's Influence Operations
Links for the day
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Almost 85% Funded
Probably 85% by Sunday or Monday
Links 04/01/2025: Demolition of IBM Building (Its Birthplace), Microsoft Layoffs, Microsoft Vice President Quits
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, January 03, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, January 03, 2025
Apple 'Articles' That Aren't... Just SPAM From Beta'News', Generated by LLMs
A 'news' sites reduced to garbage crafted by bots
A Salad of Microsoft FUD Against Linux, Published by LinuxSecurity.com Using LLM Slop/Copypasta
LinuxSecurity.com is an anti-Linux FUD site, powered by Microsoft chatbots on the face of it
Gemini Links 03/01/2025: GNU Emacs Key Bindings in GNU Midnight Commander's Mcedit and Gemini Editing Setup with Vim
Links for the day
Links 03/01/2025: Neil Young Drops Out of Glastonbury and MElon Attacking the Free Press
Links for the day
[Memes] Two Dictators. Donald Trump Loves TikTok.
This is a problem
Jeff Bezos (Washington Post) Spreads Political Propaganda Against the Internet (and the Web)
Then people wonder why trust in the media has gotten so low
In Hong Kong and Taiwan People Flock to GNU/Linux (Unlike Windows, GNU/Linux Doesn't Capture Screenshots of Everything You Do and Add Back Doors to Encryption)
Hong Kong and Taiwan have bright engineers. They know Windows is a joke.
When You Get Your "Latest Technology News" From an LLM Slop Farm
They still call themselves "BetaNews" (the word "news" is in the name)
For Software Freedom (and for Broader Personal Freedom), the Goalposts Are Moving
we need to open up our eyes and identify/classify other threats, such as social control media
Engineering Things to Last 70 Years in an 8-Bit, 16-Bit, and 32-Bit World
Nowadays they make things that barely last 7 years
Slow News, But Not Slow for Us
So far this year (maybe premature to say so because many journalists are still on holiday) the news is very, very slow
GNU/Linux Rose to 5% in Belgium (It Was 1.66% Last January)
Trebling in 12 months, according to statCounter
A Golden Opportunity that Canonical and IBM Intentionally Ignore (in Order to Appease Microsoft)
They're too dependent on Microsoft "sweeteners"
[Meme] Crushing Free Speech Before Even Taking Public Office...
someone who isn't even president is already meddling
[Meme] Be a Good and Obedient Citizen. Use Microsoft Windows.
Microsoft actively works with China to censor search results and spy on citizens
Canada: Windows at All-Time Lows, ChromeOS and GNU/Linux Rise to Almost 8%
It is widely known that many schools in Canada adopted ChromeOS
In Mexico, Windows Down to All-Time Low, GNU/Linux Up to All-Time High
Yesterday we showed that in North America adoption of GNU/Linux is growing fast
The Free Software Foundation Extends Cutoff Date (Two More Weeks), Raises About 330,000 Dollars
Isn't it predictable that people who worked for Microsoft GitHub gave money to some unscrupulous lawyers in London to harass us?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, January 02, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, January 02, 2025
Windows Falls to ~22% in France and Spain, Based on statCounter
Windows 'corrected' at 22% "market share" in France - i.e. roughly the same as Spain
Gemini Links 02/01/2025: Goals 2025, Microsofter Clickbaiting Again, Advice for the Newbie or Returning Perl Hacker
Links for the day
GNU/Linux and ChromeOS in Australia Tripled in 5 Years? That's How statCounter Sees It....
Based on statCounter...
[Meme] Wrestling With Pigs in Social Control Media
“Never wrestle with pigs. You both get dirty and the pig likes it.” ― George Bernard Shaw
Even Worse Than Racism at the Linux Foundation
And worse than corporate colonialism
It's Not Just MElon X, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, All Social Control Media is Basically a Digital Weapon
The question is, what are you going to do about it?
Microsoft Especially Important to Phoronix (It Also Gives Gifts to Phoronix)
A whole section devoted to Microsoft, mostly with puff pieces/ads of proprietary things
Microsoft Plummets to New Lows in Azerbaijan
Perhaps the Azerbaijani population is looking for something other than the NSA's foremost facilitator
GNU/Linux Reaches 5% in Indonesia (Population Size Near 300 Million)
You would need not envy "Microsoft Indonesia" right now
We Need Something More Like DMOZ, Not Search Engines and Bill-Funded Wikipedia (Censoring Unfaltering Information About Powerful People and Institutions)
era of LLMs trained on Wikipedia... Microsoft tried - and failed - to game the narrative to the same extent Google does
Tens of Billions of Dollars Down the Drain (Microsoft Lost the Search "Arms Race" or Market)
But caused injury to itself and others, just like with Nokia in mobile
Seems Like GNU/Linux Usage Doubled in Japan Last Year
So says statCounter data anyway
GNU/Linux Measured at 4.4% in South America and 3.34% in Africa, Based on 2025's Preliminary Data
All-time highs
GNU/Linux Leaps to 6% in the United States of America (Not Even Counting ChromeOS)
Additionally, the FSF in Boston is managing well
GNU/Linux Usage in Europe Leaps Above 6% in 2025
This is a big deal because a lot of Microsoft's revenue came from Europe
Windows Falls to 22.5% Worldwide, Android Up to 48%
The world's (by far) biggest populations don't use Windows much
GNU/Linux Back to 5% in 2025
That's not counting ChromeOS
Links 02/01/2025: Production of Apple Vision Pro Halted, More on Public Domain Day 2025
Links for the day
GNU/Linux Gained About 0.5% Last Year, According to StatCounter
2024 ended with "proper" GNU/Linux at +0.4%, ChromeOS at +0.1% (based on statCounter/StatCounter)
Links 02/01/2025: OpenAI Whistleblower Suchir Balaji Alleged to Have Been Murdered, Islamic Terrorism in New Orleans
Links for the day
Gemini Links 02/01/2025: Friends, Blunder Valley, and New Year
Links for the day
Links 02/01/2025: Violence Crisis in South Africa and Arrest Warrant for South Korean Leadership
Links for the day
Rumour: IBM Will Try to Induce Mass Resignations This Month Using R.T.O. (Just Like Amazon Does This Month)
Amazon will start some of this in March, sources have told us
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, January 01, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, January 01, 2025