Bonum Certa Men Certa

Increased Opposition to Bill Gates/Microsoft Exploitation of Schools, Shameless PR Explained

Classroom



Summary: More overlap is shown between Gates' plot to change schools and Microsoft's use of schools to indoctrinate young people; the role played by money that Gates passes to the education press (and other PR efforts) gets dissected and shown for scepticism to be justified

THE tax-exempt Gates Foundation is a lot more sinister than PR would have people believe. It operates just like a business and it has a business-like agenda. Watch this new video which helps explain the effect of rich people paying too little tax (or no tax in Gates' case) on the US economy. That is what happens in a system which is influenced heavily by lobbyists, who get hired by those most able to afford them (Microsoft and Gates still lobby a lot to change tax laws).



“It gives Bill enormous lobbying power, which in turn he uses to benefit companies he invests in.”To put it in simplified terms, the foundation (just a name for Bill's bank account, which gives it tax exemptions) is building a brand, the "Bill Gates" brand. It gives Bill enormous lobbying power, which in turn he uses to benefit companies he invests in. In a future post we will give more new examples of this.

One area that Microsoft relies on to keep its monopoly going is the school system. As noted this morning, Microsoft indoctrinates children at taxpayers' expense, using children to sway an office's choice of software and using teachers as a training workforce for Windowsâ„¢ and Officeâ„¢, among other proprietary software products from Microsoft€®.

In order to keep schools under strict control by the likes of Gates (schools become increasingly digital over time), there is an intense lobbying campaign which children's parents and to a certain extent teachers too are protesting against. Arne Duncan is now named as part of the problem.

The first article in this week's New Yorker questions the 'gold standards' and personality cults that have been built up around education reform. The Gates Foundation is not specifically mentioned ...

And then Arne Duncan was profiled in the weekend magazine. It doesn't say what school Arne sends his "little guys" to. Private or public?


The cited articles are both from New York and we are going to come across Arne Duncan later on in this post.

As we pointed out last week, Bill Gates uses singing star Legend to further his personal agenda in schools. He also uses PR around films for lobbying. Is it not funny that Gates wishes to change public schools while he sends his kids to private schools? Here is the sort of brainwash that comes from the film (this article is from a critic):

Education movie points the wrong way for change



[...]

The film suggests public education is failing and points in the wrong directions for change. The filmmakers have not done their homework. They universalize a very specific U.S. experience and engage in simplistic and divisive finger-pointing at teachers, at a time when education needs collaboration and respect for teaching as a profession. An opportunity lost.


It is clear that Gates' attempt to toy with education systems is not welcomed, which is why the brainwash is needed. Gates has spent hundreds of millions of dollars advertising the change he wants. There is nothing to be admired when it comes to PR, which simply collides with reality, it rarely complements it.

The blog Seattle Education 2010 is pleased to have a forum with Diane Ravitch, who is a well known critic of Gates' dangerous experimentation with school systems [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. Here is another new post about this forum and a reminder from Dora Taylor that privatisation by Bill Gates spells trouble for pupils and their teachers (it gives Gates a lot of control over them):

Dora Taylor is a parent of a high school student at a public school in Seattle, Washington, and is an architect and teacher. In response to school closures in the Seattle Public School system, Dora and her co-editor, Sue Peters, started the blog Seattle Education 2010 to report on and analyze education issues, and to protect the Seattle public school system from the corporate model and privatization efforts of the Gates Foundation, headquartered in Seattle.


Gates' lobbying carried on in Memphis, whose schools he is trying to change not by contributing much in terms of assets; it's all PR, it's usually about communication, i.e. signaling to other states that they too should want the same type of school 'reform'. From this new editorial:

That's why spending some of that money on marketing makes sense. The effort to upgrade teaching in the district could be enhanced by the school board's decision to spend $310,000 this year and perhaps more in the future to develop ways to help Memphians understand where the $90 million Gates grant is going.


To better understand what goes on in Memphis schools, see our previous posts which touched on the subject, e.g.:



There is a huge amount of education-flavoured PR going on (more PR from AP) and Gates pays for it because there will be returns, there are simply gains to be made. In order to promote his agenda in schools, Gates' staff has arranged for him to appear on Oprah's show and Microsoft is of course directly involved in these efforts too, in order to indoctrinate children. Julie Bort from IDG's Microsoft Subnet has this new article titled "Bill Gates, Microsoft call on you to contribute to education reform" and "Microsoft [is] selected by Demi and Ashton," says another headline. We have already given many other examples where Gates' involvement in a so-called 'reform' is directly benefiting Microsoft, which he co-founded and still have shares of. The Gates Foundation is to Microsoft what in some sense CodePlex Foundation/Outercurve is to Microsoft.

Dora from Seattle Education 2010 proceeds to writing on the subject of Arne Duncan, whom we mentioned earlier. What Dora may not know is that the article she cites comes from a Gates-sponsored (and thus biased) source. Yes, it's true. Education Week is sponsored by Gates to glorify him as it so often does [1, 2]. She opens as follows: "In the mindless march towards privatization of our public schools through the edicts of Arne Duncan’s Race to the Top agenda, the least among us who Duncan, Broad and Gates claim to be helping are the students most damaged by their plans for a charter school in every pot."

Education Week is sponsored by Gates to glorify him as it so often does.”A lot of people are still not realising that Gates now owns/contributes to a lot of the education press and thus he can better control what people think. It's not just Education Week as we have given many other examples. It's not just about education press, either. The popular progressive British newspaper (Guardian), for example, was recently 'bought' by the Gates Foundation to promote its agenda in the under-developed world. No wonder Gates is now advertised in all the relevant articles (see top banner), which also promote his agenda, e.g. in this new example. According to this disclosure (The Guardian at least does not hide the fact that Gates pays it), it is revealed that it's a 5-year 'bribe'. "Gates Foundation to contribute to site funding until 2015," says this update and "[i]t is envisaged that the Gates Foundation will contribute financially to the new site up to 2015 as part of its commitment to the millennium development goals." Watch/listen to what the Gates-funded NPR is saying about Gates right now [1, 2]. NPR lost all credibility because of the money on its table. More NPR propaganda is being used to promote the Gates agenda under the guise of "national" radio (national but privatised). This includes help to abusive companies like Monsanto. We have already given many other examples where NPR promoted Gates and companies he invested in after Gates had 'donated' millions to NPR.

It is too easy to get distracted by puff pieces like this one ("I will not leave $53B fortune to kids, says Bill Gates"). It's just one pointless article amongst others of its kind [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] which tell no news (been heard many times since almost a decade ago, thus it's just PR about his children, reiterated).

“Gates is getting richer while being portrayed as a giver and the middle class still vanishes (widening gap between rich and poor).”To put things in perspective, Gates has been saying this and spreading such a fairy tale for ages, all of it while not paying taxes. He is still getting richer based on Forbes' list (so much for retirement or giveaways), so how is that promise of not leaving a fortune to his kids being fulfilled since he first made it about a decade ago? Gates is getting richer while being portrayed as a giver and the middle class still vanishes (widening gap between rich and poor). Well, maybe this newly-updated list is the reason for repeating old news and getting people off his back. Microsoft Nick and many others have spread the news about Bill Gates being #1 in Forbes' rich list [1, 2, 3], so there couldn't be better timing to say that this fortune will be given away (even though it continues to expand). In a world where being most rich also means being most "generous" (at least when greased up by a PR machine), why not exploit people's ignorance or gullibility?

There is propaganda in printed newspapers to build an icon of someone who robbed society and now runs it. People are supposed to love those who hurt them the most. Using euphemisms like "reform", "education", and "health", there is an increase in suggestion that only the super-rich can save the world. Here is some health-flavoured PR about Bill Gates and Seattle growth and here is a new press release about Microsoft "health". More about this whole "health" agenda will be the main discussion of tomorrow's post. In health too there are monopolies and vast profits.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Techrights Will Spend the Next Few Years Writing a Lot About Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs)
It's a growing problem
The State of EPO Staff's Health in Rijswijk or The Hague
We're going to cover the EPO some more later in the month
NVIDIA Corp Lost 36% of Its "Value" Since Cheeto Inauguration, But "Gen Hey Hi" (GenAI) is Totally Not a Bubble
Selling loads of unneeded hardware based on hysterical hype; like selling shovels during a Gold Rush
 
Links 05/04/2025: TikTok Unsold (Still), Royal Society is Dead
Links for the day
GNU/Linux Growing in East Asia, Windows by Default No More?
GNU/Linux is now on the shelf
Slopwatch: Anti-Linux 'Articles' From Linux-Hostile LLMs
It is almost always negative things and nobody can be held responsible for it except the charlatans prompting the LLMs
Links 05/04/2025: Fentanylware (TikTok) "Sale Looks Highly Imminent" (US), Stock Market Drowning in Panic
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/04/2025: Moving Plants, No to Smartwatches, RAID Hygiene
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, April 04, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, April 04, 2025
Techrights Has Dealt With More Potent SLAPPs Than Violent Microsofters Begging to Hide What They Did to Women
I became accustomed to SLAPPs
Links 04/04/2025: Fury in South Korea, Flight MH370 Remains Mystery
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/04/2025: Anger and Raspberry Pi CM4
Links for the day
Links 04/04/2025: LLM Slop Bubble Bursting and Korea Music Copyright Association Bans Slop 'Music'
Links for the day
Traf-O-Data, the Company That Jeffrey Epstein's BFF (Bill Gates) (Co)Founded 53 Years and Went Out of Business Due to Heavy Losses
Who will die first, Bill or Microsoft?
Why Microsoft's Shares Sank Almost 20% in Recent Months (the Bubble is Imploding)
verified press reports from the past 24 hours
A Note on SimilarWeb
Or why SimilarWeb is meaningless for more than 99% of the sites on the Web
GNU/Linux Rises to Almost 5% in Algeria While Windows Sinks to All-Time Low
GNU/Linux grew tenfold
Where to Get More Gags
A valued reader recommended that to us
Links 04/04/2025: Tech Stock (Inc. GAFAM) Fall, Google Pretends to Do End-to-End Encrypted Emails (With Google in Control)
Links for the day
IBM Said to be Shutting Down Offices or Sites in the United States
the press can no longer avoid admitting that IBM moves many jobs to India
To Participate in Fedora Diversity You Must Use Proprietary Software
Not for the first time either
LLM Slop as Attack Vector on the Reputation of Linux
The attacks on Linux have escalated to information warfare
Yandex About to Be Three Times Bigger Than Microsoft (Bing) in Asia
That's about 60% of the world's population
Gemini Links 04/04/2025: Decoupling Updates, Elaho as Gemini Client
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 03, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, April 03, 2025
Microsoft's Trouble in Africa and Asia
A new all-time high for GNU/Linux
Brett Wilson LLP Reported to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)
The saddest thing in all this is that law firms can maintain high standards shall they wish to
Links 03/04/2025: Tariff Pains and C.D.C. Cuts
Links for the day
StatCounter: Microsoft is Masking a Disaster, It's Way Behind DeepSeek Already and Interest in LLMs Has Waned
it turns out the money "raised" for "Open" "AI" may not even exist at all
Links 03/04/2025: SoftBank Money for Microsoft "Open" "AI" Probably Doesn't Even Exist, Wikimedia Foundation Blasts LLM Nuisance While Microsoft Admits Demand Has Shrunk
Links for the day
Gemini Links 03/04/2025: Patch Panel and Pictures
Links for the day
Islamic Republic of Iran: GNU/Linux at All-time High This Month, Windows Falls to 12%
Vista 10 is up this month despite being "end of life" (EoL) soon
Indonesia: All-Time Highs for GNU/Linux
What's noteworthy right now is the growth of GNU/Linux
statCounter Says GNU/Linux Usage is Up Again (Internationally)
some preliminary April data
Only on April 1st Can the Free Software Foundation Associate With Microsoft's Open Source Initiative (OSI)
We saw some pranks that day linking the FSF to Microsoft (e.g. "endorsing" Windows)
Confirmed in the Mainstream Media: A Lot of Microsoft "Workloads" Were Just LLM Slop (Helping to Fake Growth for Years, as Microsoft Had Paid "Open" "AI" to Become a "Client") and Demand is Rapidly Waning, Datacentres Canceled and/or Shut Down
Anything to facilitate further accounting fraud
Taiwan's Media Covers Closure of Microsoft's "AI" Lab, It's Time to Talk About the Gradual Death of Windows and Implosion of the "AI" Bubble
Earlier this week we showed that mostly Asian media had the 'nerve' to mention Microsoft silently shutting down its 'AI' lab
IBM Gets Rid of Kelly Chambliss as Mass Layoffs Reported in IBM Consulting, IBM Loses Key Contracts/Graft
IBM Consulting has been in disarray lately
More Gains for GNU/Linux, Based on Web Surveys
the Steam site shows rapid growth for "Linux" this month
Slopwatch: Anti-Linux Articles, Not Even Written by Humans
Why aren't Web sites more vocal about this problem?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, April 02, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, April 02, 2025
Links 03/04/2025: Apple Fined Over Secret Surveillance, "Elegant Writer For A More Civilized Age"
Links for the day