Bonum Certa Men Certa

On “Conspiranoia Strawman Attacks Defending Bill Gates.”

Video download link



Summary: The video above discusses a troubling pattern of responses (or generic rebuttal) to critics of Bill Gates, based on a stigma or stereotypes associated with those critics because corporate media gives air time to the wrong people

LAST year we expressed concern about a seemingly new tactic for discrediting critics of Bill Gates, a man who had been arrested several times in his life before committing crimes at Microsoft. The person has hardly changed, but the Public Relations stunts keep changing. A lot can be accomplished with vast media budget.



"A reader of ours from Argentina noticed that same thing in his country."One particular pattern of critics being dismissed was described here before and it was explained more than half a dozen times. It's similar to the "Microsoft basher" stigma, but it's actually a lot more effective than accusing Gates critics of being "hateful" or "jealous"; nowadays they're being framed as a bunch of cranks. "I have commented on that observation before, too," an Associate of ours noted. "Though I had noticed the volume more than the sudden onset of the conspiranoia strawman attacks defending Gates."

A reader of ours from Argentina noticed that same thing in his country. He commented on how this relates to the RMS attacks. "Little detail about the RMS issue," he said, was worth pointing out. "I've been following the news on Techrights about the cancelling of RMS since day zero, and there's a detail in the whole story I don't recall reading it there (or anywhere else for the matter)."

Journalism’s Gates keepers"The chronology is fuzzy, but the thing is there. You see, almost at exactly the same time Gates began the onslaught against RMS, suddenly and out of nowhere, if you happen to speak against Bill Gates you're a lunatic."

"I mean this: at the same time the campaign against RMS started, Bill Gates also started to be the focus of conspiranoia. Comments everywhere about Bill Gates and 5G antenae that breaks your DNA, vaccines with nanochips, Qanon level stuff about deep state and NWO, and stuff like that. And paid media talking about that: lots of news about "Bill Gates thinks this and that about vaccines and global warming", and "look at all the idiotic things crazy people say online about Bill Gates". It's even the case here in Argentina media."

"So, I believe this attack had THREE fronts. Bashing RMS is one of them: you've been reporting a lot about that. Posing Gates as a goody philanthropist with deep ideas is a second one. You've also said a fair share about that, and is basically every rich person's PR campaign. But there's a third one: trying to let critics as some kind of mentally ill people with serious problems to gasp reality. And that last aspect is barely mentioned in your reports."

Journalism’s Gates keepersThis is actually untrue. We wrote about it many times, both in IRC and here in the site. The "5G" aspect was mentioned mostly as an analogy, saying strew man had been set to distract from legitimate criticism of 5G technology (hype and downsides).

Moreover, such PR techniques aren't exactly novel or new. We can find analogous things in history (and no, we won't say "aliens" or "moon landing" or "JFK or "9/11" or whatever). It's part of a broader tactic of setting up and then amplifying unreasonable views, where the real goal is to create and reinforce a stigma in the public psyche. The civil rights movements has some examples of that kind; for example, you infiltrate groups and put 'agents provocateuer' in them. They do something really mad and malicious to tarnish the name of the whole group. We don't need to have theories and hypothesis on that because there are well documented examples (and actual documents) to show such programs in police departments and agencies like the FBI.

In the case of Gates, it's difficult to understand where that came from and whether it was merely interjected into existing groups that would stain a particular line of discussion/dialogue.

Our reader explained it as follows: "I tell you this because I'm convinced the timeline of that third aspect matches the one of the Epstein-Gates reveals. The Gates conspiranoia was very sudden and unexpected: Bill Gates was no longer a thing in media since many years ago, and then all of that noise was everywhere in matter of days. Perhaps there's something searchable about that trend, some links to be made? Who knows... maybe that leads to something useful."

Journalism’s Gates keepers"Of course, I can't thank you enough for your amazing and tireless work, but you already know that. I wrote my own article about the cancelling of RMS back in 2020, for a magazine some friends of mine are setting up online. As the project is being constantly delayed, my article never saw the light. It was directed to non-informed people, mixing some awareness about both Free Software, cancel culture, and the cancer that is Gates. I'm in the process of rewritting it now, as new events are happening. I'll let you know if that article someday goes online, as it quotes Techright's work on Gates."

Since the beginning of 2020 we've had people attempting to interject complete and utter nonsense about Gates into our IRC channels and even comments (thankfully they cannot sabotage our stories by leaving random comments). It mostly started in January of last year. People would attempt to insinuate, with little or no evidence, that Gates somehow started COVID-19 and people who did that weren't regular of ours. They would just enter the IRC channel, drop in a bunch of nonsense, then leave in anger because we rejected/turned down their theories, never to return to IRC again.

I've decided to record the video about to respond to this issue because it is quite important. Other sites can easily fall for those same people or tricks.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, November 23, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, November 23, 2024
[Meme] GAFAMfox
Mozilla Firefox in a state of extreme distress
Google Can Kill Mozilla Any Time It Wants
That gives Google far too much power over its rival... There are already many sites that refuse to work with Firefox or explicitly say Firefox isn't supported
Free (as in Freedom) Software Helps Tackle the Software Liability Issue, It Lets Users Exercise Greater Control Over Programs
Microsofters have been trying to ban or exclude Free software
In the US, Patent Laws Are Up for Sale
This problem is a lot bigger than just patents
ESET Finds Rootkits, Does Not Explain How They Get Installed, Media Says It Means "Previously Unknown Linux Backdoors" (Useful Distraction From CALEA and CALEA2)
FUD watch
Techdirt Loses Its Objectivity in Pursuit of Money
The more concerning aspects are coverage of GAFAM and Microsoft in particular
Techrights' Statement on Code of Censorship (CoC) and Kent Overstreet: This Was the Real Purpose of Censorship Agreements All Along
Bombing people is OK (if you sponsor the key organisations), opposing bombings is not (a CoC in a nutshell)
Links 23/11/2024: Press Sold to Vultures, New LLM Blunders
Links for the day
Links 23/11/2024: "Relationship with Oneself" and Yretek.com is Back
Links for the day
Links 23/11/2024: "Real World" Cracked and UK Online Safety Act is Law
Links for the day
Links 23/11/2024: Celebrating Proprietary Bluesky (False Choice, Same Issues) and Software Patents Squashed
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, November 22, 2024
IRC logs for Friday, November 22, 2024
Gemini Links 23/11/2024: 150 Day Streak in Duolingo and ICBMs
Links for the day
Links 22/11/2024: Dynamic Pricing Practice and Monopoly Abuses
Links for the day
Topics We Lacked Time to Cover
Due to a Microsoft event (an annual malware fest for lobbying and marketing purposes) there was also a lot of Microsoft propaganda
Microsofters Try to Defund the Free Software Foundation (by Attacking Its Founder This Week) and They Tell People to Instead Give Money to Microsoft Front Groups
Microsoft people try to outspend their critics and harass them
[Meme] EPO for the Kids' Future (or Lack of It)
Patents can last two decades and grow with (or catch up with) the kids
EPO Education: Workers Resort to Legal Actions (Many Cases) Against the Administration
At the moment the casualties of EPO corruption include the EPO's own staff
Gemini Links 22/11/2024: ChromeOS, Search Engines, Regular Expressions
Links for the day
This Month is the 11th Month of This Year With Mass Layoffs at Microsoft (So Far It's Happening Every Month This Year, More Announced Hours Ago)
Now they even admit it
Links 22/11/2024: Software Patents Squashed, Russia Starts Using ICBMs
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, November 21, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, November 21, 2024