Upon closer inspection, those books have zero wear on them.
No shelf wear on the bottom (scuffing at the bottom of the hardcovers), no dog-eared pages (though most people do that on the top;
the books lie perfectly flat indicating do dog earing - no scuffing of the dust jacked on the bottom spine from being picked up and put down;
on the softcover books, no lines from being opened too far for the binding.
The top book has no scratches on the gloss cover, it gleams smoothly in the light.
My conclusion, Gates paid a staffer to go buy a bunch of books that would make him look smart if he had actually read them, but he hasn't read them. He has people he pays to do that for him, and tell him what the conclusions are.
Upon closer inspection, those books have zero wear on them.
No shelf wear on the bottom (scuffing at the bottom of the hardcovers), no dog-eared pages (though most people do that on the top;
the books lie perfectly flat indicating do dog earing - no scuffing of the dust jacked on the bottom spine from being picked up and put down;
on the softcover books, no lines from being opened too far for the binding.
The top book has no scratches on the gloss cover, it gleams smoothly in the light.
My conclusion, Gates paid a staffer to go buy a bunch of books that would make him look smart if he had actually read them, but he hasn't read them. He has people he pays to do that for him, and tell him what the conclusions are.
I'm pretty sure they're leftist decorations, like a nice vase with flowers.