Good Person of Seattle

Microsoft founder Bill Gates, long a target of anti-Capitalist rage, is being vilified again, this time by supporters of President Donald Trump. Populist “Make America Great Again” loyalists accuse the mild mannered computer genius of exploiting the coronavirus crisis for personal power and profit like a crazed villain from a James Bond plot. In an exclusive essay for Die Weltwoche, publishing giant and one time US presidential candidate Steve Forbes explains why the Trumpers are dead wrong. Not only has Gates propelled one of the greatest technological leaps in human history, through his tireless philanthropy, the 64-year-old, with a personal wealth of over $104 billion, has saved millions of lives from disease and pandemic all over the globe. And the visionary entrepreneur from Seattle, Washington, who famously dropped out of Harvard University, is set to make history again: saving the world from COVID-19.

Bill Gates is the most vilified hero in the world today. The voluminous, vitriolic attacks he is subjected to 24/7 on social media make Darth Vader look like Mother Theresa. Someday psychologists and historians will write learned treatises puzzling why he became such a reviled figure on all sides of the political spectrum, portrayed as an evil man out to dominate the world and maliciously inflict misery on all of humanity. To praise Gates these days is to invite a torrent of abuse—I know from personal experience.

Good Person of Seattle
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