Of course U2 is one of Bill Gates' favorite bands

Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder, philanthropist and top pick of conspiracy theorists looking for the center of their bullshit storms, spent time interacting with the great unwashed of Reddit in an Ask Me Anything thread last week. The rather unforgiving people that call Reddit their internet home grilled the billionaire on a …

[Zippy´s Sausage Factory]

"I don't have a particular Scottish band in mind since bagpipes don't make my top 10"

Did... did he just attempt to make a joke?

[Annihilator]

Like the article suggests earlier up the page, there's a high chance it was all generated by ChatGPT.

[Anonymous Coward]

Wouldn't this be dangerous, especially if the AI sent something confusing?

Even human vetting can go so far, and what about malicious compliance? (Unless Billy is vetting it himself?)

[A. Coatsworth]

The Simpsons (or in this case, Futurama) did it first:

Bill Gates humour by Microsoft Jokes®

[Wilco]

Is/Are

In 'merica, for some reason bands are regarded as singular, hence a Leftpondian can legitimately say "U2 is an overrated, rather boring band".

In Blighty bands are correctly regarded as plural, because they generally have more than one member. Thus a fine upstanding British organ such as El Reg should have headlined this piece "Of course U2 *are* one of Bill Gate's *favourite* bands". Standards must be maintained

[wolfetone]

Re: Is/Are

"In Blighty bands are correctly regarded as plural, because they generally have more than one member. Thus a fine upstanding British organ such as El Reg should have headlined this piece "Of course U2 *are* one of Bill Gate's *favourite* bands". Standards must be maintained"

If standards are to be maintained, then when referring to the band U2 then they should also be referred to by their proper title: shit.

[Alumoi]

Re: Is/Are

Thus a fine upstanding British organ such as El Reg should ...

Where have you been in the last years? El Reg is now a 'fine upstanding US organ'. And it shows.

[veti]

Re: Is/Are

Incorrect. Bands, like other collectives (such as companies and countries) are singular when referred to as an entity. So "U2 is shit", just like "the US is insane".

[Excellentsword]

Re: Is/Are

It depends. Not even in America would they say The Beatles is a band.

[Updraft102]

Re: Is/Are

U2 is a band. That is singular.

U2 are not plural!

[Kane]

Re: Is/Are

"U2 are not plural!"

I hope not, one of them is bad enough.

[David Nash]

Re: Is/Are

I started replying to say it depends on context, but changed my mind because on reflection it seems that using the plural is the normal case in Britain at least. Not sure about Ireland.

[Fr. Ted Crilly]

Re: Is/Are

and ofc, still shit...

[Annihilator]

Makes more sense that Steve Jobs was a U2 fan though.

[Detective Emil]

I’m not sure that I’ve yet got over U2 violating [CBS News] my iTunes library.

[Annihilator]

Exactly. Every so often it still appears on my iPhone and I've no idea how it's still there.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's like having a couple of kids. You can be forever saying "stop it you two", and they never do....

[Korev]

> I’m not sure that I’ve yet got over U2 violating [CBS News] my iTunes library.

Oh U2

[tiggity]

If Americans are involved

Choose Texas as your Scottish band for that extra bit of confusion

[Androgynous Cupboard]

Re: If Americans are involved

Well played, well played. As for Belle and Sebastian, maybe he's tried them but just nods off after a minute or two. It happens.

(I'm actually glad he didn't say Mogwai, I'm not sure I could adjust my preconceptions that rapidly without doing myself an injury)

[Aleph0]

Re: If Americans are involved

Mmh, while also mentioning Big Country for that bonus conspiracy aftertaste...

[AMBxx]

Re: If Americans are involved

I saw Big Country play Wembley in the mid 80s. They were supporting U2 - obviously a conspiracy.

The Christians and The Pogues were also playing - is this conspiracy larger than we thought?

[Michael Wojcik]

Re: If Americans are involved

This goes all the way to the top (of the charts).

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: If Americans are involved

Of course, Texas is clearly French because Paris (the place, not *her*) is in Texas.

[Paul Herber]

I'd have though SAHB (with or without Alex) would have been his cup of tea.

[Anonymous Coward]

Generated by ChatGPT.

>Some of the responses feel like they were generated by ChatGPT.

Damn, you figured it out! If theregister.com mysteriously disappears in the next few weeks we'll know why.

Anonymity will protect me, right?

[Korev]

Re: Generated by ChatGPT.

> Anonymity will protect me, right?

Not from the Moderatrix!

[Version 1.0]

U2 is great but ...

"I'm on the run, But I ain't got no gun. See they want to be the star, So they fighting tribal war ...

And they saying, Iron, like a lion, in Zion."

[fg_swe]

The King of "Vaccine Subscription"

The half baked stuff he sponsors "immunizes" you for three months, then you need another shot. Each shot a nice proft for the "philantropist".

Also, lets suppress all the reports of side effects, because this man is so insanely rich, he can't be a quack.

[Michael Wojcik]

Re: The King of "Vaccine Subscription"

You forgot to mention Sappeur. The judges can only give you 5/10 for kookery this time. Please try harder.

[fg_swe]

In Other Words

All of my arguments are correct, as you can only deflect from them.

[Michael Wojcik]

1/4,000th is one in four thousand, guys

Redditors pointed out that "1/4,000 of the farmland in the US" is... quite a lot. As one put it: "About 223,825 acres, or almost 350 sq. mi. Almost as big as Ft. Worth, TX."

That's ... not quite a lot. Maybe it sounds like a lot in absolute terms, particularly to the sort of people who spend a lot of time on Reddit rather than, say, learning and thinking. But it's only about 1/10th of the size of Ted Turner's ranches, for example. It's a tiny drop in the sea of US farmland, to say nothing of the rest of US land, much of which is just empty.