The plutocrats I have met tend to be alarmed about the decline of classical liberalism in universities; they don't sound like they think they could easily purchase agenda-setting power through simple donations.
I've been in the rationalist community for quite a while, this is the first time I've noticed you here on HN. It is really funny to observe how much people want to argue against you when you condense your point down into a terse statement. Looking through your past comments, it is a very common pattern of behavior.
syn0byte- the man you are replying to is fairly well-connected. I would take the words he said as a credible anecdote- he hangs out with plutocrats enough to know what he said.
Wall Street is full of these people.