It’s funny to see Bill Gates has become a Trump supporter after he spent the past decades pretending to care about a bunch of causes, like vaccination programs in Africa, that Trump has taken a huge dump all over. Or not really funny so much as horrific and disgusting. I always suspected he was faking it to rehab his image.
I pay for access to the local newspaper and a few other things. I agree it isn’t ideal but the people producing the content need to eat.
Also, having a subscriber base directly providing funding can potentially make a news org more trustworthy. Being reliant on your subscribers for funding provides a mechanism of accountability to them that a news org dependent on advertising doesnt have.
I wouldn’t take it personally, Lemmy has a number of people who do dumb shit and make provocative accusations trying to stir up drama. Especially around Israel, there seems to be this phenomenon where some people get locked into this simple good vs evil thinking that motivates a lot of shitty behavior.
I gave up on it because sneaking around and getting caught so easily got boring fast and wasn’t particularly fun. Everything else about the game seemed fine but the sneaking mechanic was designed poorly.
That is a great point, we know for sure that Gates was friends with Epstein. I recall it even being in the media that one of the reasons his wife divorced him is because she found out about their relationship. It seems very plausible that Trump is blackmailing Gates, and others at that table. I know at least Brin has a reputation and rumors around him. Altman also had that accusation from his sister a few years ago, but it was never substantiated to my knowledge and I believe it turned out she has a life long severe mental illness that makes her delusional. Regardless, these are rich and powerful guys who no doubt have lots of things to hide and Trump is certainly not above coercion, I’d say he even enjoys it.