My review of Bill Gates's memoir
Actually, I'm reviewing part one of Gates's memoir. Because, of course, Bill Gates needs three books to tell his life's story
I’ve thought and written a lot about journalistic bias around Bill Gates, but even I’ve been surprised by how glowing the media’s reception has been to Gates’s new memoir. Of particular note are the big pieces that the New Yorker and the New York Times ran, both of which make Herculean efforts to present Gates as the model billionaire.
My review, published today in Unherd, offers almost a polar opposite assessment. And the only way I can explain this is that, unlike seemingly every other journalist reviewing Gates’s book, I don’t believe the hype. I don’t think that when a billionaire publishes a look-at-me memoir, journalists should be rolling out the red carpet. I think journalists should be asking Gates why he takes up so much space. Why he’s always talking. Why he has so much money, so much power. Why he pays so little in taxes. Why he donates so much money to the news media. Why he’s so widely accused of colonial behavior. Why his philanthropy functions as an unregulated political actor. Why the Gates Foundation today faces calls to pay reparations for all the harm it has done.
Journalists should be interrogating how harmful Gates’s extreme wealth is to all of humanity—-and also to Gates, himself.
That’s the point of the headline of my book review—-”What is Bill Gates Afraid Of?” At a moment when you're 69-years old and writing your memoir, isn't it time to be honest with yourself, and with the rest of us, about who you really are? Does Gates even know who he is? Surrounded by sychophants and people who depend on his wealth, it's very possible that he has no idea how many people today see him as the emperor who wears no clothes.
Gates's extreme wealth is bad for humanity. And it's bad for him personally. And it’s stunning that our leading news outlets, which are supposed to be helping people make sense of the world, don’t get it.
Check out my full review on Unherd: https://unherd.com/2025/02/what-is-bill-gates-afraid-of/