People seem all outraged, but I really don't care. Kurzgesagt is just a youtube channel of explaining cool science topics with very high quality animations. It's really not so different from Cosmos, or Into the Universe, or Mythbusters, or any of these other shows that were also financed by multinational corporations. Nobody cared that billionaires financed those other shows, why's it such a big deal for Kurzgesagt?
This starts from the assumption that billionaire funds are intrinsically malign in intent.
While it may be helpful that some portion of the public believes this, to keep them on their toes, it is not really fair.
For instance, this video itself criticizes Gates Foundation malaria funding for drawing resources away from other diseases.
But it is obvious that the enormous funding given to battle malaria was philanthropic rather than a way to get even richer.
Soros, the Templetons, Dustin Moskowitz, Warren Buffett, and so on are all likewise philanthropists and there is no reason to doubt the sincerity of it.
So the problem would be mainly about differences in worldview. Their view on how to make society better involves using the market, or taking a rosy picture of the role of private enterprise.
And this is likely a reflection of their sincerely held views.
So the problem here is that some dont like that people can become vastly wealthy and then use it to promote their views with a larger megaphone, even if there is no direct financial benefit or nefarious goal.
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[ 2.4 ms ] story [ 15.6 ms ] threadWhile it may be helpful that some portion of the public believes this, to keep them on their toes, it is not really fair.
For instance, this video itself criticizes Gates Foundation malaria funding for drawing resources away from other diseases.
But it is obvious that the enormous funding given to battle malaria was philanthropic rather than a way to get even richer.
Soros, the Templetons, Dustin Moskowitz, Warren Buffett, and so on are all likewise philanthropists and there is no reason to doubt the sincerity of it.
So the problem would be mainly about differences in worldview. Their view on how to make society better involves using the market, or taking a rosy picture of the role of private enterprise.
And this is likely a reflection of their sincerely held views.
So the problem here is that some dont like that people can become vastly wealthy and then use it to promote their views with a larger megaphone, even if there is no direct financial benefit or nefarious goal.