For the titans of industry in Nazi Germany and Trump’s America, silence and complicity enable authoritarianism

[Guno צְבִי]

America’s tech leaders should heed a listen from the tycoons who enabled Hitler’s consolidation of power​

On a frosty February day in 1933, Adolf Hitler summoned 24 of Germany’s leading industrialists to a government palace in Berlin to enlist them in dismantling the last vestiges of democracy. When it was over, the high priests of commerce and industry had donated a total of 2.1 million Reichsmarks to the Nazi Party.

Last September, at the White House in Washington, D.C., 15 American tech executives sat down for dinner with Donald Trump. For eight months, Trump had been steering the country closer to authoritarianism. Yet instead of challenging him, the executives praised him. Google co-founder Sergey Brin lauded Trump for “supporting our companies instead of fighting with them.” Sam Altman, the OpenAI CEO, thanked him for being a “pro-business, pro-innovation president,” calling him “a very refreshing change.”

For the titans of industry in Nazi Germany and Trump's America, silence and complicity enable authoritarianism

For the titans of industry in Nazi Germany and Trump's America, silence and complicity enable authoritarianism.

forward.com

 

[Yakuda]

America’s tech leaders should heed a listen from the tycoons who enabled Hitler’s consolidation of power​

On a frosty February day in 1933, Adolf Hitler summoned 24 of Germany’s leading industrialists to a government palace in Berlin to enlist them in dismantling the last vestiges of democracy. When it was over, the high priests of commerce and industry had donated a total of 2.1 million Reichsmarks to the Nazi Party.

Last September, at the White House in Washington, D.C., 15 American tech executives sat down for dinner with Donald Trump. For eight months, Trump had been steering the country closer to authoritarianism. Yet instead of challenging him, the executives praised him. Google co-founder Sergey Brin lauded Trump for “supporting our companies instead of fighting with them.” Sam Altman, the OpenAI CEO, thanked him for being a “pro-business, pro-innovation president,” calling him “a very refreshing change.”

For the titans of industry in Nazi Germany and Trump's America, silence and complicity enable authoritarianism

For the titans of industry in Nazi Germany and Trump's America, silence and complicity enable authoritarianism.

forward.com

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