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

Microsoft-Connected Sites Trying to Shift Attention Away From Microsoft's Megabreach Only Days Before Important If Not Unprecedented Grilling by the US Government?
Why does the mainstream media not entertain the possibility a lot of these talking points are directed out of Redmond?
Firefox Has Fallen to 2% in New Zealand
At around 2%, at least in the US (2% or below this threshold), there's no longer an obligation to test sites for any Gecko-based browser
 
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, May 19, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, May 19, 2024
Gemini Links 20/05/2024: Updated Noto Fontpacks and gemfeed2atom
Links for the day
GNU/Linux in Georgia: Looking Good
Windows down from 99% to less than 33%
Tomorrow is a Historic Day for Press Freedom in the UK
Take note of the Julian Assange case
Hiding in a Forest Without a Phone and Hiding Behind the First Amendment in the United States (US)
some serial defamer is trying to invert the narrative
Links 19/05/2024: Iran's President Lost in Helicopter Crash, WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange Awaits Decisions in Less Than a Day
Links for the day
Links 19/05/2024: Microsoft Investigated in Europe
Links for the day
4 Old Articles About Microsoft/IBM SystemD
old but still relevant
Winning Streak
Free software prevalence
Links 19/05/2024: Conflicts, The Press, and Spotify Lawsuit
Links for the day
GNU/Linux+ChromeOS at Over 7% in New Zealand
It's also the home of several prominent GNU/Linux advocates
libera.chat (Libera Chat) Turns 3 Today
Freenode in the meantime continues to disintegrate
[Teaser] Freenode NDA Expires in a Few Weeks (What Really Happened 3 Years Ago)
get ready
GNU/Linux is Already Mainstream, But Microsoft is Still Trying to Sabotage That With Illegal Activities and Malicious Campaigns of Lies
To help GNU/Linux grow we'll need to tackle tough issues and recognise Microsoft is a vicious obstacle
Slovenia's Adoption of GNU/Linux in 2024
Whatever the factor/s may be, if these figures are true, then it's something to keep an eye on in the future
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, May 18, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, May 18, 2024
Links 19/05/2024: Profectus Beta 1.2
Links for the day
Site Archives (Not WordPress)
We've finally finished the work
[Meme] The EPO Delusion
on New Ways of Working
EPO Representatives Outline Latest Attacks on Staff
Not much has happened recently in terms of industrial action
Links 18/05/2024: Revisiting the Harms of Patent Trolls, Google Tries to Bypass (or Plagiarise) Sites Under the Guise of "AI"
Links for the day
Links 18/05/2024: BASIC Story, Site Feeds, and New in Geminispace
Links for the day
GNU/Linux in Kyrgyzstan: From 0.5% to 5% in Eight Years
the country is almost the size of the UK
Justice for Victims of Online Abuse
The claims asserted or pushed forth by the harasser are categorically denied
[Meme] Senior Software Engineer for Windows
This is becoming like another Novell
Links 18/05/2024: Deterioration of the Net, North Korean IT Workers in the US
Links for the day
Windows in Lebanon: Down to 12%?
latest from statCounter
[Video] 'Late Stage Capitalism': Microsoft as an Elaborate Ponzi Scheme (Faking 'Demand' While Portraying the Fraud as an Act of Generosity and Demanding Bailouts)
Being able to express or explain the facts isn't easy because of the buzzwords
Links 18/05/2024: Caledonia Emergency Powers, "UK Prosecutor's Office Went Too Far in the Assange Case"
Links for the day
Microsoft ("a Dying Megacorporation that Does Not Create") and IBM: An Era of Dying Giants With Leadership Deficits and Corporate Bailouts (Subsidies From Taxpayers)
Microsoft seems to be resorting to lots of bribes and chasing of bailouts (i.e. money from taxpayers worldwide)
US Patent and Trademark Office Sends Out a Warning to People Who Do Not Use Microsoft's Proprietary Formats
They're punishing people who wish to use open formats
Links 18/05/2024: Fury in Microsoft Over Studio Shutdowns, More Gaming Layoffs
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, May 17, 2024
IRC logs for Friday, May 17, 2024
Links 18/05/2024: KOReader, Benben v0.5.0 Progress Update, and More
Links for the day