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There's a certain lack of credibility in this complaint when the space race and a great source of global unity was found in the moon landing off the back of the
by friendlybus 6y ago
There's a certain lack of credibility in this complaint when the space race and a great source of global unity was found in the moon landing off the back of the Saturn V. The Americans had the choice to erase werner von braun from significance and instead chose to benefit on a grand scale from his slave-built knowledge.
You're right Von Braun is part of the past now. He's apart of the Usa's past. It's difficult to hear complaints about his nazi past, long after all the hard choices about what it means were already made.
VB's work is inexplicibly stamped into space flight and trying to get rid of that influence now, is like having your cake and eating it too.
- ahelwer 6y agoMany other fields have this same problem with terrible people making foundational contributions. The usual compromise is to rename phenomena that were named after them, not name any new things after them, and let their name drift into history. The history of the field is there for anyone who wants it, but it is just that - history. They are not venerated going forward. If you want to make the case that this field should be forced to bear von Braun's name as a stain, I guess that's a somewhat interesting idea but I think it would have the effect of improving von Braun's legacy rather than forcing spaceflight to reckon with its past.
- friendlybus 6y agoI would let the things he did sit with is name and prevent future things being named after him. White-washing your past after you make billions off the back of slaves he killed and his work, is just a little too much sting to bear. I don't think you should be 'forced to bear his name as a stain'. It's just reality for what your space agencies did and hiding it isn't a valuable addition.