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It gets worse. Google what IBM did for a certain country in Europe during the 1930s and 1940s (yes, after the invasion of Poland).

• the-dude 6y ago
  But Poland fired first!
• tracker1 6y ago
  Absolutely... we should burn every IBM, VW, BMW and every other corporation that worked with WWII Germany to the ground!
  • whymauri 6y ago
    Not sure if this in bad faith, but... What we should study is how these companies successfully laundered their reputations, such that we can hold modern corporations accountable for conspiring with genocidal or dictatorial state actors. This does not solve every ethical problem that underlies the contemporary corporation, but I believe that companies that are complicit in the mass extermination of human life should face the consequences. Hopefully, we're on the same bandwidth here.
    • sudosysgen 6y ago
      Or, maybe address the systematic realities that make companies act this way over and over for centuries.
      • deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
      • bad_user 6y ago
        You mean people? Companies are ran by people, people want to get rich, people are the problem. The only change I see working is to hold accountable not just the companies themselves but the decision makers too.
        • sudosysgen 6y ago
          Companies are not people and are not run by people, they have specific legal requirements and power structures that mean that the operate very differently from how most people that compose them want them to. In any case, how people act is largely a consequence of their environment, i-e, the system. These can be environmental, political (as in, power relations), cultural, etc...
          • ta17711771 6y ago
            > specific legal requirements Stop leaning on this, because it's not true, just a cop-out. Individual corporate humanism isn't a crime.
            • sudosysgen 6y ago
              Corporate humanism isn't always a crime. Sometimes it is. But even when it isn't, it is a sub-optimal strategy compared to maximizing as long as those that make the decisions have differing interests than those that bear them. And if they do not have differing interests, then why separate them?
        • tracker1 6y ago
          And what's the solution? Do you propose killing everyone that worked for the companies in question during WWII? What about those not in Germany or occupied terretories? Since most of those people are long since dead, do you propose killing their children and grandchildren? Anything done today for crimes 80 years ago will only serve to hurt those that weren't even around, and not really help those that were harmed.
      • whymauri 6y ago
        You've just described a superset of what I'm talking about. These goals go hand-in-hand, and I'd say understanding the systemic reality is a necessity for dismantlement and/or reform.
        • sudosysgen 6y ago
          I agree. I'm just suggesting that there is not really a fundamental distinction between genocidal corporations and non-genocidal corporations, rather that the issue probably comes from deeper.
      • edanm 6y ago
        I mean, say what you will about IBM helping the Nazis, but I think a more relevant question is what made a country act in the way Germany did in WW2.
    • tracker1 6y ago
      I kind of just left it alone... it was intended to be sarcasm, but figured there's three ways it could be taken. Sarcasm/humor, genuine or false-flag. The reality is that companies aren't people, and despite the concept of corporate personhood shouldn't be treated like it. Nobody working in or managing a corporation today was likely a part of said company during WWII. Beyond the above, Sometimes "companies" have no choice. If your company, and its' resources, employees, etc. exist in a totalitarian regime, you're kind of stuck. If the country's leaders are willing to kill and replace you, then most people would simply comply. Many that worked in these companies during WWII passively resisted by slowing things down and hindering projects. Not enough to get them killed, but enough to keep things from going as bad as quickly as they otherwise would have. A company is made up of its' people, from the leadership down... and that changes over time. Trying to hold a company to something done 80 years before is kind of meaningless. If it was called for and/or done at the time, or nearer the time that's different. Like many things, at some point you need to get over things that happened before you were born and concentrate on the now.