Marc Benioff

He’s the CEO and co-founder of San Francisco-based Salesforce, one of the world’s largest software companies, which owns the popular messaging service Slack and is worth nearly $300 billion. He also owns Time magazine.

When I ask Benioff about the properties in the anonymous LLCs, things seem to take a turn. He starts speaking more quickly and fidgets with a piece of paper in his hand. He’s reluctant to go through the holdings, and his adviser on the Zoom call jumps in to say we can discuss later.

A couple of days before the interview, Benioff texted the same NPR colleague again, asking for intel on my story. Then he called me and demanded to know the title of this piece. During that call, he also mentioned he knew the exact area where I was staying. Unnerved, I asked how he knew, and he said, “It’s my job. You have a job and I have a job.” During the interview, he brings up more personal details about me and my family.

I leave the meeting disconcerted and still unclear about what exactly is happening with his land in Waimea.

The following day, I drive around with a photographer to take pictures of the town and Benioff’s projects. We go to the property he described as a community center and are confronted by one of his employees. The photographer explains we’re there to take photos of the outside of the building. Shortly afterward, I get a text from Benioff. His employee seemed to think we were “snooping,” and he says he’s escalating the incident to NPR CEO John Lansing. Lansing confirmed he spoke with Benioff, without going into detail — the NPR newsroom operates independently, and the CEO is not involved in editorial decision-making. Benioff didn’t respond to my question about the purpose of this call.

    • @FilthyHookerSpit
      22•10 months ago

      They have taken advantage of mechanisms that siphons money from the working class. By default they’re not good people. Once you’re old and aging, spending SOME of your massive fortune to try to leave a benevolent legacy, which in itself is selfish, does not make you a good person.

      • BargsimBoyz
        -24•10 months ago

        People change, and there is a difference between doing charitable work later in life VS not doing any charitable work at all.

        If you take a completely utilitarian view, you’d actually argue you need to become a billionaire in order to become charitable at a significant level because realistically at an individual level you’re going to do fuck all.

        • @FilthyHookerSpit
          13•10 months ago

          I’m not making a point that his efforts haven’t helped some people. I’m saying that he’s not a good person, even if his money later in life has had some positive effect. A billionaire donating to just causes, to me, is like: if you robbed a bank, putting all it’s employees out of work but then you donate a few hundred bucks to each said employee. Sure, it helped them but you’re part of the problem.

          • @[email protected]English
            4•10 months ago

            The funny thing is that even the Gates Foundation is actively causing harm on a massive scale. It’s funding charter schools as a way to kill public education, pushing for circumcision in Africa without a meaningful scientific basis for such a program, or lobbying against vaccine patent waivers. People forget about that because it also is the PR arm of the Gates empire.

        • @TengoDosVacas
          4•10 months ago

          Think of all the things we could address through cooperation instead of having to wait until a billionaire fucks enough people to have money to do the same thing should he suddenly decide to become charitable.

          Billionaire cucks are outlandishly stupid

    • BargsimBoyz
      -25•10 months ago

      Yeah man, there is no good in the world, everyone sucks! I love me some black and white thinking with no nuance.