#Robber barons

[thatsbelievable]

[shrinkrants]

"When people react to a floating signifier, it’s because something is simmering beneath the surface. When the tension at the surface breaks, and that underlying hurt begins to boil, the instigating action and actor should not be our primary focus. The question is, what can we do with the energy and outrage that is clearly roiling?"

"If it sounds like I am romanticizing violence, please understand I am merely assessing conditions–conditions that I and the rest of the working class did not create. I do not romanticize gun violence. However, it bears mentioning that gun violence happens every day and that the average person barely takes notice. We are surrounded by violence. Premature death is manufactured every minute of every day in the United States and in the many places where this country’s corporate and militaristic tentacles extend. That churn of suffering and death is generally treated as background noise. For some people, the death of a CEO was an exception to that norm–they were disturbed that this man was gunned down and that so many people expressed sympathy or support for his killer. For others, it was the background noise itself that was amplified by this moment. The normalized hum of organized abandonment, failed Gofundmes, insurance denials, pained screams, and senseless loss became a collective wail.

"People are furious and heartbroken, and they know they have been wronged. Some are working themselves to death, laboring through illness or amid the deterioration of their joints or spinal discs, because they can’t afford to stop. Some pay insurance rates they can barely afford and still receive astronomical medical bills. Many have watched their loved ones suffer and die needlessly or while in unnecessary pain. Still more are constantly struggling to get the basic tests and medications they need to maintain their health. They know that people like themselves are dying when they could be saved. If they are not suffering today, they know that they could be tomorrow–that they could be struck by chronic pain or a chronic illness that would render them surplus and disposable in a billionaire’s world. The working class is marked for violence, as corporate policies and algorithms decide if our bodies are worthy of maintenance–or if we should simply be left to die.

"Could this moment be ground zero for the class awakening we desperately need? As the United States becomes an unapologetic mafia state and a new era of smash-and-grab politics gets underway, could a new wave of popular outrage begin not with a tent, but with a bang?"

[rednblacksalamander]

Honestly kinda surprised this hasn't happened more often...

[frankidacre]

There’s that one myth about Cornelius Vanderbilt being a major factor in the creation of potato chips…. I couldn’t help but just run with this idea 😭

[isawthismeme]

[thepoliticalvulcan]

I think its extremely valid to both feel that newspapers should not endorse candidates and be deeply, profoundly disturbed that Jeff Bezos is openly tearing down the firewall at WaPo to override the wishes of the WaPo editorial team.

I'm someone who thought that the firewall mostly really was real although not impenetrable. That Bezos' presence at the paper created a sort of gravitational pull that influenced the paper without him dictating what stories to run and what to kill.

But!

If you never thought the firewall was real, the counter argument defending the firewall is such an uphill climb that I would not personally expend energy making that argument, even though I do think it was *mostly* real although far from cast in neutronium.

[racefortheironthrone]

Read your post on "disruptors", loved it, and made me wonder why so many have a cult of personality spring up around them. Were there similar cults of personality for the mega wealthy in the past; like was Rockefeller worshiped the way so many worship Musk? Or is it a more modern trend fuelled by our constant connectivity and consumption of media? Thanks!

You raise an interesting question.

It was certainly true that the robber barons of the 19th century - Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Carnegie, Morgan, Gould, Frick, etc. - were larger-than-life figures in the media (especially the part of the media that covered high society). It is also true that with a lot of these figures, there was this popular myth of the self-made man that sought to turn them into quintessential rags-to-riches, up-by-your-bootstraps American sucess stories.

But for the most part, the robber barons of the Gilded Age were hated for their monopolistic behavior and their use of violence to suppress the working class - and these magnates often had to go to great lengths to repair their reputations. Andre Carnegie's library-building campaign, for example, was very much a PR move meant to soften his image after the Homestead Strike. In fact, my great-grandfather Humphrey Attewell helped to organize opposition to the construction of a Carnegie library in Northampton, because he and other working-class people felt that the funds for the library were blood money distributed by a murderer. Likewise, it's not an accident that John D. Rockefeller founded the Rockefeller Foundation right around the same time that the Ludlow Massacre turned him into a monster in the eyes of the American public.

I would argue that we start to see more of a cult of personality around the mega-wealthy a bit later - say, 1900s-1930s - and the major turning point was the career of Thomas Edison. While Edison was every bit as ruthless and grasping as the robber barons before him - hence the war of the currents, his penchant for patent theft and/or stealing credit for inventions, the very existence of Hollywood - the fact that he was an inventor with so many world-changing patents to his name made Edison into a very different kind of media figure. Thomas Edison became a star of pulp fiction and dime novels, a sort of proto-superhero Science Hero - in addition to Edison's Conquest of Mars (an unauthorized sequel to the War of the Worlds in which Thomas Edison gets revenge for the Martian invasion of Earth by launching a counter-invasion of the red planet with his superior technology), there was a whole genre of Edisonades all about young inventor geniuses who use their inventions to save the day and/or explore the "savage frontier."

I think you can draw a line from the cult of personality around Edison to the cult of personality that formed around Henry Ford in the 20s and 30s as not just a car manufacturer but a visionary who had created a new age of modernity, and from there to the legend of the Packard garage, and from there to contemporary Silicon Valley.

[chowdergal]

This man will beat you at Monopoly™️

Drew this picture of Wendell Carroll in between pages for my webcomic! I can't wait to draw more of this monster for my story 🤣

[ablogofcourage]

[cartogaffe]

fighting game idea

Want a robber-baron fighting game where Vanderbilt has insane linear combos via railroad-themed attacks and Carnegie swings a great big steel bar at you yelling "Fore!" because he is from Scotland

Call it: Gilded Rage

[jasoncanty01]

How Reagan's GOP Impacted America

From Facebook

Jonathan Zucker

  · 

I have long been positive that the Republican party prolonged the Iran Hostage crisis in 1979 to ensure Jimmy Carter's defeat.

The theory was based on the fact that the hostages were released the day Reagan was inaugurated, far too quickly for any legitimate negotiation to have occurred. Furthermore, the Iran-Contra scandal (in which the Reagan administration violated a US arms embargo to covertly sell arms to Iran) always seemed to be the perfect quid-pro-quo for holding the hostages until Reagan was President.

However, multiple credible investigations--focused on Bill Casey (chairman of Reagan's campaign and later director of the CIA) as the intermediary--had been unable to substantiate the theory.

However, we now have proof.

The problem, as it turns out, is that these investigations focused on the wrong person as the intermediary. Casey was smart enough not to do take the trip himself or to use any foreign relations expert as a surrogate.

A blockbuster article in the New York Times yesterday revealed that, in 1979, John Connally (former Republican Governor of Texas) went on a tour of middle east capitals with one message to be passed to the revolutionaries in Iran: "If you reject any deal Carter is offering and hold the hostages past the election--all-but-ensuring Ronald Reagan would win the election--Reagan will give you a much better deal than Carter is offering."

Accompanying Connally on this trip was a little know political aide named Ben Barnes.

Yesterday Barnes came clean (50 years later) and, in a detailed interview with the Times, revealed where Connally had travelled and to whom he had spoken. And, that, upon his return, his first stop was to brief Casey on his trip.

What this means is that:

(a) the Reagan campaign condemned 52 American diplomats to months of unnecessary (additional) captivity with the express purpose of influencing a Presidential election;

(b) the illegal Iran-Contra arms sales were, as suspected, the quid pro quo to the religious dictatorship of Iran for holding America's hostage to ensure Reagan's victory.

Just another reminder that the contemporary Republican party--focused on winning at all costs, damn the republic--is nothing new.

It's the same Republican party we have had since FDR broke their hold on power in 1932. It is just that from 1932 to 1980 they only managed to win Presidential elections.

But, starting in 1980 when they took control of the Senate (for the first time since 1955), and began their campaign to

(a) take control of the judiciary to undo the New Deal regulatory state (abortion, gun rights, and so-called "religious freedom" are window dressing issues to secure votes from White evangelicals) and

(b) pile up debt by engaging in tax cuts that disproportionately benefit the wealthy (eventually forcing, in their view, a radical downsizing of federal programs).

This has been the agenda of the wealthy elite that funds the Republican party since--literally--1932.

With Trump's Supreme Court appointments and tax cut (which built upon the Reagan and both W. Bush cuts), they succeeded.

It took them 90 years, but they won.

Tax rates on the wealth are lower than at any time since the 30s and the Supreme Court is systematically hamstringing the 20th century regulatory state. And, as a result, concentration of wealth has returned to the pre-New Deal levels of the "Gilded Age."

While I do not think it was their intent, I don't think they care that our very democracy may be a casualty of their efforts.

Anyway... clear evidence that Reagan's victory in 1980 is severely

tainted, if not completely illegitimate.

[frankidacre]

The American Aristocrat (OC!)

Gilded Age is so underrated compared to Victorian London. So YES I WILL impose my robber baron OC upon you all!!

[isawthismeme]

[lovingbeta]

Trickle-down onto the slag heap of history!

[aurianneor]

Pour une Europe unie pour protéger nos normes!

L’Europe est le premier marché mondial. C’est le marché qui offre le plus de sécurité à ses citoyens. Il y a des normes pour tester les aliments, les médicaments, les produits, les véhicules, etc.

La dérégulation est au programme de Trump à la demande des milliardaires comme Elon Musk, la famille Sackler ou Peter Thiel. Ils revendiquent un retour au “gilded age” (1870-1890) pendant lequel les entreprises n’étaient pas embarrassées de normes sociales, environnementales ou hygiéniques. Mais la nourriture était produite sur place, ce qui n’est plus le cas aujourd’hui. Les conséquences seraient pires. C’est l’époque des “Robber barons”. Des fortunes incommensurables ont été faîtes. Ils faisaient la loi et ne payaient aucun impôt et ce au détriment de la sécurité des consommateurs, des travailleurs et de l’environnement.

Il y a des produits qui ne sont pas vendus parce qu’ils ne respectent pas ces normes. Ces personnes-là considèrent que c’est un marché de perdu.

S’il n’y a pas besoin de faire des tests ou d’acheter des produits de qualité, cela permet de faire baisser les prix et de remporter les marchés. Cela entraîne tout le monde vers le bas et transfère les coûts sur la société: coût des malades, pollution de l’environnement, indemnisation des accidents, etc.

Les Etats-Unis vont faire miroiter soit des sanctions soit des bénéfices à certains pays européens pour diviser l’Europe et la forcer à baisser ses normes. Par exemple, Perrier ne serait pas embêté par des normes sanitaires, et pourrait vendre une eau impropre à la consommation humaine. Par exemple, les jouets pourraient être vendus même s’ils contiennent des produits toxiques. Par exemple, les OGM seraient sur le marché européen.

Par ailleurs, le secteur agro-industriel fait pression en interne à l’Europe pour abandonner les normes environnementales et sociales. Par exemple, ils voudraient réutiliser des produits phytosanitaires dangereux ou javeliser les poulets élevés dans des conditions indignes. Certaines normes européennes ont été détournées pour des intérêts particuliers, et avec une administration excessive. Par exemple, le format des légumes pour favoriser les industriels. Du coup, certains souhaiteraient défaire les normes. Mais c’est oublier que la majorité de ces normes nous protègent contre les empoisonnements, les incendies, les accidents etc. Les normes ne sont pas toutes mauvaises. Ce ne sont pas des acquis.

« Les bénéfices de l’Union européenne sont systématiquement sous-estimés, parce qu’ils sont considérés comme acquis » – Le Monde: https://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2024/12/26/les-benefices-de-l-union-europeenne-sont-systematiquement-sous-estimes-parce-qu-ils-sont-consideres-comme-acquis_6468688_3232.html

Avec l’accord UE-Mercosur, les produits du Brésil ou d’Argentine peuvent entrer sur le marché européen sans être soumis aux normes. L’Europe supporte déjà des pressions en interne pour baisser ces normes.

Si les normes disparaissent, il va y avoir de nombreux malades et accidents. De nos jours, les sociétés sont complexes. Seuls quelques ultra-riches vont avoir d’énormes bénéfices à court terme au détriment de l’ensemble de la société. On doit pouvoir faire confiance aux médicaments, à l’alimentation, aux moyens de transport. Par exemple, la méninginte a resurgi car certaines personnes doutaient du vaccin. Autre exemple, le Boeing 737 max a été cloué au sol car il n’est pas fiable, que se passerait-il s’il était à nouveau autorisé à voler? Les produits chinois, russes et indiens, entre autres, de faible qualité ou potentiellement dangereux arriveraient sur le marché européen.

Si un dirigeant politique européen a un intérêt politique à baisser les normes, cela affaiblit toute l’Europe qui peut moins imposer ses conditions. Suivre égoïstement les Américains ne permet pas d’avoir une Europe forte.

Pour résister à cet affaissement des normes, il faut une Europe unie. Chaque pays a plus intérêt à jouer la solidarité plutôt que de traiter chacun de son côté avec les pays exportateurs.

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Le EU-Mercosur: https://www.aurianneor.org/le-eu-mercosur/

Pour une défense européenne: https://www.aurianneor.org/pour-une-defense-europeenne/

Tous complices: https://www.aurianneor.org/tous-complices/

Le prix plafond et le prix plancher: https://www.aurianneor.org/le-prix-plafond-et-le-prix-plancher

Le parapluie à cachetons: https://www.aurianneor.org/le-parapluie-a-cachetons-la-recherche-sur-les/

Solidarité Hélvétique: https://www.aurianneor.org/solidarite-helvetique-democratie-semi-directe/

Les 1% les plus riches sont en guerre contre le reste du monde: https://www.aurianneor.org/les-1-les-plus-riches-sont-en-guerre-contre-le-reste/

Le compas moral: https://www.aurianneor.org/le-compas-moral/

Une aide militaire sous conditions: https://www.aurianneor.org/une-aide-sous-conditions/

Qui soutient les militaires américains?: https://www.aurianneor.org/qui-soutient-les-militaires-americains/