What if I told you American companies have spent the last 30 years queuing up to build factories in China and across Asia to take advantage of disadvantaged people.
Your precious Macbook was probably made by slave labour. I'm sure it contains parts which were. The great artist Jobs was fine with that.
no disagreement from me: capitalism is bad, the depredations of capitalism are bad, exploitation of workers is bad; and neoliberal capitalism and its open-armed embrace of china for its own cynical purposes has been doubly bad, and probably a gross historical mistake. what does that have to do with explicitly funding hate ideologies, though? in sponsoring and giving support to racist or totalitarian regimes? let's not forget that the west engaged in business with china in the hope (misplaced or not) that china would become more liberal and more democratic -- not the opposite. ford was not that.
as for the 'aha! you own things! you are complicit in all the evils of capitalism!' i say: ok. living at your parents' in a maternal cocoon doesn't make you exempt from it, either, dilbert. rare earth minerals and metals come from child labour in africa. i am quite sure that the vast majority of electronics in your home are not assembled in australia. i am very much sure that most of your fashion and textiles are not upmarket boutique stuff made by artisanal hipsters in australia, and probably also come from sweatshops in indonesia or vietnam or something.
there's a meme picture somewhere on the internet that has something to do with 'i see you like coffee! tell me more about being anti-capitalist'. you've probably seen it. it's not a good point, dilbert.
not sure about steve jobs being 'an artist'. who has ever called him that? bro he didn't even have a humanities degree! let alone was he an artist! but sure, someone who wears turtlenecks and jeans probably strikes you as an exotic and intimidating type.
Did they actually themselves commit any evil?
henry ford funded the publication and dissemination of anti-semitic tracts. 'the international jew' and 'the protocols of the elders of zion' not only influenced hitler and the nazis with conspiracy theory, but also latterly influenced the muslim brotherhood and islamic fascism. i don't know, but somehow i consider being an ideological influence and mouthpiece for a movement that killed 6 million people as pretty 'evil' to me. not sure how your moral compass is calibrated and to what sort of due north it points over there, buddy!
he wasn’t unique in his class either, of american mega-rich capitalists and corporatists who funded fascist regimes. money poured in, deals were made, services lended. are you going to tell me all the engineers, like all the corporate bosses and authoritarian strongmen, were in fact Good because they 'were job creators'?
none of it is particularly interesting or surprising but seeing as you like to link things like ‘stalin wrote bad poetry’ to his tendencies to also send all of his political rivals to labour camps and basements, i think it’s worth adding for nuance that plenty of clear-sighted science folk have contributed to holocausts, hate ideologies and totalitarianisms.
Last edited by uziq (2020-09-25 02:14:08)