[soraminazuki]

No, the takeaway from that talk isn't that we shouldn't judge Ellison's intentions. Quite the opposite, actually. Bryan Cantrill states that Ellison's motives are simple. It's only about money and no other human emotions are involved.

There are so many quotes indicating this:

"What you think of Oracle is even truer than you think it is. There has been no entity in human history with less complexity or nuance to it than Oracle."

"This company is very straightforward in its defense. It's about one man, his alter ego, and what he wants to inflict upon humanity! That's it!"

"If you were to about ask Oracle, 'Oracle what are you about? Larry, what are you about? Why Oracle? Tell me about Oracle.' 'Make money.' ' Okay, yeah yeah I get it.' 'Make money. Make money. Make money. That's what we do. Make money.'"

"The lawn mower can't have empathy!"

[edmundsauto]

I have to disagree with your interpretation. “Inflict”, for example, is a very loaded word that speaks to intent or at least the mindset.

I think we all feel like we know who movie stars and celebrities really are. When, in reality, not only do we not know their motivation - often we don’t even know our own.

[soraminazuki]

I mean you can personally disagree with the talk, but what's being said is pretty clear here. The quotes in my previous comment alone make what's unambiguously a judgement about Ellison, and there's so much more from the original talk. Bryan Cantrill even likens Ellison to Nazis in a number of his other talks btw, so it can't get any clearer than that.

Me personally, I think it's fair to judge people by their actions. When a person is amassing billions in wealth at the expense of everyone else, there's nothing more meaningless than wasting time imagining about how that person might possibly be kind and well-meaning deep down.