Buffett defends 'Giving Pledge' against Thiel and 'billionaire backlash'

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: CNBC

Published Sat, Mar 21 2026 8:22 AM EDT


Warren Buffett is defending the philanthropic initiative he co-founded with Bill Gates almost 15 years ago as it faces what The New York Times calls a “billionaire backlash.”

Buffett wrote in an email to the newspaper, “I firmly believe in the Giving Pledge and consider it quite a success, though my physical limitations have eliminated my participation in the annual get-together. “I have continued to contact possible members but only on a minor scale in recent years. Bill Gates has continued major efforts.”

In 2010, Buffett said he and Gates hoped to “establish a new norm” with the Pledge, which is a “promise by the world’s wealthiest philanthropists to give the majority of their wealth to charitable causes in their lifetime of wills.”

But in a major article this week, the Times says that over the past two years, “there has been a growing backlash from the billionaires who are its target donors,” including a “quiet campaign by one pro-Trump tech billionaire to destroy it.”. Peter Thiel tells the Times he has privately encouraged around a dozen signers to cancel their pledges. “Most of the ones I’ve talked to have at least expressed regret about signing it.”

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/21/buffett-defends-giving-pledge-against-thiel-and-billionaire-backlash.html

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My dad had the Miles Davis "Live Evil" album (I think I still have it in a crate in the basement). It was this version -



Thiel is the personification of "live evil".

[underpants]

1. Buffet doesn't have to "defend" anything in any way connected to that freakish Nazi Thiel

[Blue Full Moon]

2. Thiel is evil.

Thiel is the Antichrist. His CIA tech and CIA funded company is named after the crystal balls that Sauron used to influence Saruman to become evil.

[pat_k]

3. Too bad I don't believe in an afterlife or divine punishment.

If I did, I could perhaps comfort myself that these immoral, vile, evil people -- people hellbent on exploiting others and generally making the world a more terrible place for everyone else -- faced eternal damnation.

As it is, my only comfort is that such immoral, vile, evil people are probably utterly incapable of compassion, joy, or any other human experience that actually makes life worthwhile.