BMW

Vicky@lemmy.world to Lemmy Shitpost@lemmy.world – 1698 points –
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I recently was in the BMW museum and they actually had a whole section dedicated to their Nazi past and how they want to never do that again. Do with that what you will but at least they're not shoving it under the carpet.

It's important not to forget the past. If America treated slavery the same way we'd be a lot further socially.

Reminder that the USA was a big inspiration for the nazis.

They pretty much wanted to make a USA II

It's not like they used IQ tests as justification for forced sterilization or anything... Wait what?

Yes and no. They also saw the US as ethnically impure and therefore weak. The 4th Reich wasn't going to have that problem.

I wish the UK would do the same. At least in the US they learn a bit about slavery - here in the UK we learn nothing about the British Empire and its atrocities. No wonder we have statues of slave traders everywhere.

I know there is regional variation on how the slave trade is taught, but when I was in school we had numerous, extended, and graphic discussions on the horrors of the slave trade starting from elementary school and extending into college.

Without doxxing yourself could you give an idea of where you went to school? I went to public school in the south and other than being mentioned I didn't learn much about slavery in school. I mean we learned about the underground railroad and generally knew about the slave trade and that being a slave was about the worst thing humanly possible. But other than getting whipped they didn't talk about much of the torture or punishments they'd went through. Civil rights I remember being discussed more in depth than slavery but when I was a kid I attributed it through the fact that most of my teachers remember the civil rights movement from when they were my age. Sorry I'm high so I'm rambling now.

I grew up in California

I’m not surprised about your experience though. I have also lived in the south and many of the southern states are still feeling the effects of decades of extensive lobbying on education by the Daughters of the Confederacy.

They DoC has historically pushed a narrative about slaves being happy and content overall, cared for by empathetic masters who valued their well-being. There are many monuments still standing glorifying the wartime deeds done by “loyal” and happy slaves. It’s really insidious.

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That's actually very missleading, like most involved companies they tried everything to hide it till the shitstorm got too big and the damage to their image was smaller that way so we shouldn't give them any credit for that whatsoever!!!

Every single business in existence will sell out any value they say they hold for profit.

If they don’t another business will, welcome to capitalism.

I know that. But we still need to support the companies that do shit we want, so it's more profitable to do so.

TBF, Disney is not buckling under pressure from the Florida Nazi governor.

Disney don’t give a fuck about LBGTQIA+.

There’s just more profit in performative concern for that community.

I feel a little more sympathetic to them for the Nazi stuff than for any current shit they pull.

I have to wonder, had they said no, what the German state would have then done to them. Essentially any state can require a company to produce wartime goods.

If they don’t another business will

That's true, but just because the business that does sell out is more successful, doesn't mean we can't and shouldn't buy from the businesses that didn't sell out. Obviously they will be harder to find because they tend to be more local and/or niche (you gotta be, if you want to survive against businesses with no morals), but we all need to be doing what we can.

Of course with cars, there's little we can do because all the privately owned companies tend to be making multi-million dollar cars. But for things like food, clothing, etc, there are often alternatives to the big name brands. You just have to look for them.

better than IBM I guess

Just curious, what did they do?

They did what they were told and didnt argue.

Same as Hugo Boss made SS uniforms, a lot of german people and companies at the time just went along. Even if they didnt wholeheartedly swallow the propaganda, even if they quietly hated the Nazi regime, they saw those that spoke out beaten, killed or straight up vanish. Some of the companies willingly stuck their heads in the sand and just went along because they knew that to resist was to mark yourself, and to cooperate was to profit.

Yeah that is some great info, but what does IBM has to do with Nazi?

There is a book about it: IBM and the holocaust.

here is a summary, hopefully not paywalled.

That is atrocious. According to that account, there is proof that they willingly participated in the Holocaust in exchange for profits, and not a single one of them faced justice.

Didnt realise you were asking specifically about IBM. IBM definitely knew they were doing something wrong.

Yeah,This article should give you a good outline.

Their current symbol looks like a painted over swastika, so I'm sure their future will continue be a painted over swastika.

no, that's just the Bavarian checkers, pretty common across Bavaria

Actually it resembles an aircraft propeller, because that's what their engines were for.

So does OPs picture. It's a propeller, right?

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