4 ms·

As far as I’m concerned Bayer and Monsanto are like evil incarnate and last time I brought up this lawsuit on HN I was shocked people were defending them. We’re

As far as I’m concerned Bayer and Monsanto are like evil incarnate and last time I brought up this lawsuit on HN I was shocked people were defending them. We’re talking about the company that intentionally sold HIV infected blood to people. If it was legal and they could increase profits by lighting people on fire they would do it. Yet people trust corrupt research that they paid for showing their product is safe. Well their crap poison is on almost all the produce in every grocery store in the country so I guess they get the last laugh.

fleddr 4y ago
There was a dutch researcher that claimed that their weed killer was responsible for the wiping out of many insects, notably bees and bumblebees, but possibly others. The man was ridiculed by his professional peers, whom later turned out to be bribed. The researcher was fully correct.
imcoconut 4y ago
>As far as I’m concerned Bayer and Monsanto are like evil incarnate Especially so when they were a subsidiary of IG Farben. >The company had ties in the 1920s to the liberal German People's Party and was accused by the Nazis of being an "international capitalist Jewish company".[8] A decade later, it was a Nazi Party donor and, after the Nazi takeover of Germany in 1933, a major government contractor, providing significant material for the German war effort. Throughout that decade it purged itself of its Jewish employees; the remainder left in 1938.[9] Described as "the most notorious German industrial concern during the Third Reich"[10] in the 1940s the company relied on slave labour from concentration camps, including 30,000 from Auschwitz,[11] and was involved in medical experiments on inmates at both Auschwitz and the Mauthausen concentration camp.[12][13] One of its subsidiaries supplied the poison gas, Zyklon B, that killed over one million people in gas chambers during the Holocaust.[b][15] The Allies seized the company at the end of the war in 1945[a] and the US authorities put its directors on trial. Held from 1947 to 1948 as one of the subsequent Nuremberg trials, the IG Farben trial saw 23 IG Farben directors tried for war crimes and 13 convicted.[16] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IG_Farben https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IG_Farben
marc_abonce 4y ago
> Bayer [...] intentionally sold HIV infected blood to people. I had no idea about this. For anyone else that's curious: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/may/23/aids.suzannegoldenberg https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/may/23/aids.suzannego... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contaminated_haemophilia_blood_products https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contaminated_haemophilia_blood...
- emodendroket 4y ago
  Not only impressively cynical but seems pretty reckless.
- hiptobecubic 4y ago
  Jesus Christ.. Imagine being in jail for selling weed to someone who wanted it, meanwhile everyone that orchestrated this is still relaxing on their yachts. Unbelievable.
- teachrdan 4y ago
  I love the fact that Beyer retired the Monsanto brand. It's a real bad sign when a company whose most famous product is Zyklon B tells you that your brand is toxic. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jun/04/monsanto-to-ditch-its-infamous-name-after-sale-to-bayer https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jun/04/monsanto-to... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zyklon_B https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zyklon_B
telesoft 4y ago
>people were defending them. I believe that some company monitors websites like reddit and twitter for talk about Monsanto or Big Oil (fracking) and that company pays shills to defend them.
- saiya-jin 4y ago
  I mean, it would be strange that in 2022 HN would not be included in continuous campaigns to maintain good PR and keep getting baseless positive opinions, seed doubt and confusion to any criticism. I would expect any big multinational corp to have few permanent people / external agency on permanent contract just for this. And considering how these corps in discussion are almost cartoonishly evil, there is probably a lot of work being done constantly.
- UweSchmidt 4y ago
  Someone on reddit claimed he was on a US presidential campaign doing exactly that. Respond to posts with pre-made replies, if things got hairy, distract with humor or memes. Interestingly, they were aware when they were dealing with another paid shill from the opposing side. After all those years on the internet I think I can also feel the impact of systematic forum activity; controversial topics that get swift, well articulated replies with links and upvotes. Another comment, declaring the winner of the debate! Is it individual experts who weigh in, organically? Groups who are passionate about the topic and organize via Discord? Or professional shitposters and memers? Who can tell. But a few internet-addicted Reddit aficionados could cover a lot of topics in a lot of communities for a small salary and huge impact.
  - willcipriano 4y ago
    Hillary Clinton had a super PAC that did so openly: "In April 2016, Correct the Record announced that it would be spending $1 million to find and confront social media users who post unflattering messages about Clinton in a "task force" called "Barrier Breakers 2016".[1][5] In addition to this, the task force aimed to encourage Sanders supporters to support Clinton and to thank both "prominent supporters and committed superdelegates".[6] The organization's president, Brad Woodhouse, said they had "about a dozen people engaged in [producing] nothing but positive content on Hillary Clinton" and had a team distributing information "particularly of interest to women".[7]" https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correct_the_Record https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correct_the_Record If you watched r/politics and political humor back that it went from organic looking to the consent manufacturing factories they are today.
colpabar 4y ago
I don’t know which thread it was but I have seen the same thing. Apparently considering a company’s past actions when judging their current actions is “childish” because all the bad people left after they got in trouble and everyone there is good now. What a load of crap!
- dieselgate 4y ago
  Yeah it’s a tough one. A “company” is just a box with people inside. Or maybe a “separating the artist from the art” type exercise. Bayer is a bit more nuanced for me than Monsanto

fleddr 4y ago

There was a dutch researcher that claimed that their weed killer was responsible for the wiping out of many insects, notably bees and bumblebees, but possibly others. The man was ridiculed by his professional peers, whom later turned out to be bribed. The researcher was fully correct.

imcoconut 4y ago

>As far as I’m concerned Bayer and Monsanto are like evil incarnate Especially so when they were a subsidiary of IG Farben. >The company had ties in the 1920s to the liberal German People's Party and was accused by the Nazis of being an "international capitalist Jewish company".[8] A decade later, it was a Nazi Party donor and, after the Nazi takeover of Germany in 1933, a major government contractor, providing significant material for the German war effort. Throughout that decade it purged itself of its Jewish employees; the remainder left in 1938.[9] Described as "the most notorious German industrial concern during the Third Reich"[10] in the 1940s the company relied on slave labour from concentration camps, including 30,000 from Auschwitz,[11] and was involved in medical experiments on inmates at both Auschwitz and the Mauthausen concentration camp.[12][13] One of its subsidiaries supplied the poison gas, Zyklon B, that killed over one million people in gas chambers during the Holocaust.[b][15] The Allies seized the company at the end of the war in 1945[a] and the US authorities put its directors on trial. Held from 1947 to 1948 as one of the subsequent Nuremberg trials, the IG Farben trial saw 23 IG Farben directors tried for war crimes and 13 convicted.[16] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IG_Farben https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IG_Farben

marc_abonce 4y ago

> Bayer [...] intentionally sold HIV infected blood to people. I had no idea about this. For anyone else that's curious: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/may/23/aids.suzannegoldenberg https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/may/23/aids.suzannego... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contaminated_haemophilia_blood_products https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contaminated_haemophilia_blood...

emodendroket 4y ago
Not only impressively cynical but seems pretty reckless.
hiptobecubic 4y ago
Jesus Christ.. Imagine being in jail for selling weed to someone who wanted it, meanwhile everyone that orchestrated this is still relaxing on their yachts. Unbelievable.
teachrdan 4y ago
I love the fact that Beyer retired the Monsanto brand. It's a real bad sign when a company whose most famous product is Zyklon B tells you that your brand is toxic. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jun/04/monsanto-to-ditch-its-infamous-name-after-sale-to-bayer https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jun/04/monsanto-to... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zyklon_B https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zyklon_B

telesoft 4y ago

>people were defending them. I believe that some company monitors websites like reddit and twitter for talk about Monsanto or Big Oil (fracking) and that company pays shills to defend them.

saiya-jin 4y ago
I mean, it would be strange that in 2022 HN would not be included in continuous campaigns to maintain good PR and keep getting baseless positive opinions, seed doubt and confusion to any criticism. I would expect any big multinational corp to have few permanent people / external agency on permanent contract just for this. And considering how these corps in discussion are almost cartoonishly evil, there is probably a lot of work being done constantly.
UweSchmidt 4y ago
Someone on reddit claimed he was on a US presidential campaign doing exactly that. Respond to posts with pre-made replies, if things got hairy, distract with humor or memes. Interestingly, they were aware when they were dealing with another paid shill from the opposing side. After all those years on the internet I think I can also feel the impact of systematic forum activity; controversial topics that get swift, well articulated replies with links and upvotes. Another comment, declaring the winner of the debate! Is it individual experts who weigh in, organically? Groups who are passionate about the topic and organize via Discord? Or professional shitposters and memers? Who can tell. But a few internet-addicted Reddit aficionados could cover a lot of topics in a lot of communities for a small salary and huge impact.
- willcipriano 4y ago
  Hillary Clinton had a super PAC that did so openly: "In April 2016, Correct the Record announced that it would be spending $1 million to find and confront social media users who post unflattering messages about Clinton in a "task force" called "Barrier Breakers 2016".[1][5] In addition to this, the task force aimed to encourage Sanders supporters to support Clinton and to thank both "prominent supporters and committed superdelegates".[6] The organization's president, Brad Woodhouse, said they had "about a dozen people engaged in [producing] nothing but positive content on Hillary Clinton" and had a team distributing information "particularly of interest to women".[7]" https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correct_the_Record https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correct_the_Record If you watched r/politics and political humor back that it went from organic looking to the consent manufacturing factories they are today.

colpabar 4y ago

I don’t know which thread it was but I have seen the same thing. Apparently considering a company’s past actions when judging their current actions is “childish” because all the bad people left after they got in trouble and everyone there is good now. What a load of crap!

dieselgate 4y ago
Yeah it’s a tough one. A “company” is just a box with people inside. Or maybe a “separating the artist from the art” type exercise. Bayer is a bit more nuanced for me than Monsanto