Black Hole Star – Kurzgesagt

The link claims:

1. ONE kurzgezadt video was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation 2. Bill gates is invested in big pharma 3. The Kurzgesagt video white washed big pharma’s slow response to treating tropical diseases because doing so is unprofitable

Conclusion: bill gates has a profit motive for having his charity prop up ALL Kurzgezadt videos.

There are so many weak links in this argument and the conclusion is not even justified by the supporting arguments that it seems silly to even engage — but here goes.

Let me start by saying the the link you sent also has a profit motive to attack Kurzgesagt and Bill Gates because it drives views and therefore ad revenue or at least subscribers and views. So if profit motive is disqualifying, then the link posted is equally guilty.

However, the profit motive is not equal. An extra 20 bucks probably means more to the person who made the video than an extra 20 million does to Bill Gates. He is invested in almost everything, so you could pick almost anything and say “corporate shill! Bill gates is involved!”, so personally I find this argument weak and lazy. Additionally, you seem to way overestimate billionaire greed. Do you think that hurting people and making an extra X zillion dollars is going to make said billionaire “happier”? It makes for great headlines, but it’s just standard class warfare and ignores the fact that we are all human and is ignoring basic human motivations.

A far more believable argument is that the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation believes that Kurzgesagt is an effective communicator of difficult ideas and chose to fund them for this reason. And I do believe that WOULD make someone feel good — better than making a couple extra bucks.

Finally, even if you still believe that Bill Gates is Satan and everything he touches is demonic and unholy, this still ignores the fact that THIS BLACK HOLE STAR VIDEO HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH BILL GATES, and the linked video has failed to demonstrate ANY causal motive between Black Hole Stars, Kurzgesagt “being a corporate shill”, and billionaire profit motives.

The Kurzgesagt video on black holes stars was an entertaining and quite frankly staggering bit of astrophysics, well illustrated and well explained. Maybe this is helping line the pockets of Big Telescope?

Edit: my purpose is to attack linked the video, not the account of the person linking it, and I changed some of my tone to reflect that.