Throughout history corporations and their leadership have a terrible record when it comes to authoritarianism.
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@danwentzel Historically the wealthy have been the primary supporters of fascism.
The week before Hitler gained power, Göring sent letters inviting Germany's top 25 industrialists to a secret meeting. At the meeting, Hitler said "private enterprise cannot be maintained in a democracy" and promised to eliminate trade unions.
The industrialists were so enthusiastic, they went on to raise 3 million Reichsmarks to strengthen and confirm Nazi power. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_Meeting_of_20_February_1933
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The fascist Tech Bros are the 2026 equivalent of those Nazi party funding supporters.
@simonzerafa @danwentzel It's not just tech bros, they're just the most visible. It's primarily defense corporations, private prisons, private contractors with ICE and DHS, private schools, and the like that are backing the current administration.
Most of these things, including defense corporations, DHS funding, and private prisons, have received funding and support from both sides of the aisle.
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@simonzerafa @danwentzel It's not just tech bros, they're just the most visible. It's primarily defense corporations, private prisons, private contractors with ICE and DHS, private schools, and the like that are backing the current administration.
Most of these things, including defense corporations, DHS funding, and private prisons, have received funding and support from both sides of the aisle.
@simonzerafa @danwentzel I keep needing to write a blog post about this, but the terrifying stuff we saw in Chicago this fall were was done by an agency created by Bush, using legal standards pioneered by Obama circa 2014, expanded and challenged in courts by Trump, and pushed more aggressively by Biden during the latter two years of his term (rebuilding of family detention facilities, higher deportation rates). It's been a two decade project to get to where we are now.
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@sam @danwentzel I see "pre-echoes" of T***p telling the oil men to give him $1 billion for his campaign, and he'll give them what they want.
He somehow thinks they want Venezuela.
@ObbieZ @danwentzel This isn't new, and it's actually an American tradition.
In 1954, Jacobo Árbenz was democratically elected in Guatemala and required United Fruit Company to sell their unused land at the *prices they declared on their tax returns* (undervalued for tax fraud).
United Fruit lobbied the US government, including putting the *director of the CIA on their board*, until the CIA orchestrated a coup in 1954 and established a murderous military dictatorship. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954_Guatemalan_coup_d'%C3%A9tat
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@ObbieZ @danwentzel This isn't new, and it's actually an American tradition.
In 1954, Jacobo Árbenz was democratically elected in Guatemala and required United Fruit Company to sell their unused land at the *prices they declared on their tax returns* (undervalued for tax fraud).
United Fruit lobbied the US government, including putting the *director of the CIA on their board*, until the CIA orchestrated a coup in 1954 and established a murderous military dictatorship. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954_Guatemalan_coup_d'%C3%A9tat
@ObbieZ @danwentzel That right-wing dictatorship, whose leaders were trained in US institutions on how to torture people efficiently, went on to commit a genocide of the Mayan people in Guatemala https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guatemalan_genocide
Of course they let the United Fruit Company keep their land, enabling them to exploit their workers with significantly more brutality to keep prices low for Americans.
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@ObbieZ @danwentzel That right-wing dictatorship, whose leaders were trained in US institutions on how to torture people efficiently, went on to commit a genocide of the Mayan people in Guatemala https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guatemalan_genocide
Of course they let the United Fruit Company keep their land, enabling them to exploit their workers with significantly more brutality to keep prices low for Americans.
@ObbieZ @danwentzel American involvement in other countries because our corporations aren't making enough money has at least a century-long history. It's worth reading about it to understand and contextualize what's going on today. This book is probably the best intro on it: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/187149.Open_Veins_of_Latin_America
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@danwentzel Historically the wealthy have been the primary supporters of fascism.
The week before Hitler gained power, Göring sent letters inviting Germany's top 25 industrialists to a secret meeting. At the meeting, Hitler said "private enterprise cannot be maintained in a democracy" and promised to eliminate trade unions.
The industrialists were so enthusiastic, they went on to raise 3 million Reichsmarks to strengthen and confirm Nazi power. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_Meeting_of_20_February_1933
@sam @danwentzel and poor of the communism. both equally bloodthirsty, one using race as an excuse for violence another the "class" (which is even more stupid). it's not the wealth which makes people evil. red comissars were so enthusiastic to kill people that "class" definition became totally bogus.
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Throughout history corporations and their leadership have a terrible record when it comes to authoritarianism.
They will almost always disappoint anyone hoping they risk losing even a dime to stand up for democracy.
“We have a fiduciary responsibility to our stockholders.”
It is always a pleasant surprise when a corporate leader does the right thing.
The East India Company was a private, English corporation that completely subjugated India.
One of its primary exports was tea.
The British Parliament passed the Tea Act, to remove taxes on EIC tea, to protect the profits of the EIC in the colonies, where smuggling provided competition. Many members of Parliament were shareholders of the EIC.
The Sons of Liberty staged the Boston Tea Party, in Boston, Massachusetts, dumping EIC tea into Boston Bay.
Parliament passed the Intolerable Acts, clamping down on self-governance and commerce in Massachusetts.
This led to the American Revolution.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Tea_Party
Later, the East India Company was dissolved, and its control of India was transferred to Britain, which India then threw off in 1947.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_independence_movement
So, yeah, #corporations tend to align with #authoritarianism. Authoritarianism leads to human suffering, which leads to popular #revolution.
The flag of the USA was likely modeled on the EIC flag.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_the_East_India_Company
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@sam @danwentzel I see "pre-echoes" of T***p telling the oil men to give him $1 billion for his campaign, and he'll give them what they want.
He somehow thinks they want Venezuela.
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@ObbieZ
Thought you might like to know, when you partially asterisk political names you are bypassing filters and subjecting vulnerable folk to increased anxiety and other mental health issues. -
Respectfully..
I consider his name to be an obscenity, and I refuse to use it.
Can you suggest an alternative that works for all of us?
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@ObbieZ
use his name so folk can use filters or cover your reply post with a cw, please. @sam @danwentzel@urbanists.social -
@SnowyCA @sam Sorry, not using his name.
He's the #orangeDipshit. Set your filters on that.
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@simonzerafa @danwentzel It's not just tech bros, they're just the most visible. It's primarily defense corporations, private prisons, private contractors with ICE and DHS, private schools, and the like that are backing the current administration.
Most of these things, including defense corporations, DHS funding, and private prisons, have received funding and support from both sides of the aisle.
@sam @simonzerafa @danwentzel
Don't forget the aging industrialist bros fighting the tech bros for relevance -- in particular, those in fossil fuels and transportation.How much of what's going on is due to their egos being bruised?
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