this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2025
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Today I Learned

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[–] Fredselfish@lemmy.world 234 points 6 days ago (8 children)

So they didn't prosecute a single individual in this attempt. Guess our government as always allowed insurrection go unpunished in our country. Just like Trump and his J6th people.

[–] Stovetop@lemmy.world 196 points 6 days ago (3 children)

Even better, it allowed for a political dynasty to come from it anyways. Prescott Bush, the father of George H. W Bush and grandfather of George W. Bush and Jeb Bush, was one of the parties involved with the Business Plot, and the Bushes seemed to do a fine job carrying on his legacy.

[–] YarHarSuperstar@lemmy.world 47 points 6 days ago

Wow. This makes so much sense.

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 25 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Stop making me sad sir! I see you reciting facts, and putting reality on full display. This only means that it doesn't matter what we do, fascism will always be a lurking and sometimes more than lurking threat. Even if you stop it's current plans, it's always there, unpunished, ready to rear it's ugly head in future generations.

STOP MAKING ME SAD, SIR!!!

[–] ZephyrXero@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

No, it means next time the world goes to war with fascists, they need to finish the job.

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[–] TheBat@lemmy.world 16 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Should've been executed tbh.

[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago (1 children)

We'd have a much better country if they'd done that, no doubt.

[–] andros_rex@lemmy.world 9 points 5 days ago (2 children)

If we had executed all of the traitors after the Civl War, instead of letting them return to their basically untouched power structures, we wouldn’t be in this situation.

There were no consequences for taking up arms against the United States a century and a half ago - why would there be consequences for something like a coup?

[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 6 points 5 days ago

Fair point.

This whole mentality of forgiving treason so the country can move forward is a nice get out of jail free card for the rich assholes that keep getting us all killed.

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[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 49 points 6 days ago

When the powerful people do it, the state will protect them while socialists got the rope for essentially shit posting because the plebs liked it a bit too much.

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 16 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

right wing insurrection*

mlk and malcom x were persecuted, nazis are the ones getting a pat on the head, which tells you what you need to know about the us government.

[–] Eldritch@lemmy.world 7 points 6 days ago (2 children)

FDR waved prosecution in exchange for the fascist senators involved. Voting for his legislation.

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[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 101 points 6 days ago (2 children)

I love that I never learned about this until I read history books for fun as an adult. You'd think that young students, growing up in this country, should know what the wealthy class has done in full to try and keep them oppressed, whether it's the Business Plot, the Battle for Blair Mountain, the violent government response to rail strikes, etc. etc. etc.

But no.

Schools don't teach this stuff on purpose.

[–] DankOfAmerica@reddthat.com 29 points 6 days ago (3 children)

the Battle for Blair Mountain

Welp, here's another rabbit hole on the list. See yall later 👋😀

[–] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 5 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Let me know how you come out. Happy digging rabbit. Happy digging.

Edit: One of the crazy things in that wiki article to me was it listed ~1,000,000 shots fired, and only about 34 dead.

That would mean if the average person shot 100 rounds, and they knew 300 other people in attendance, on average 1 of those 300 may have actually shot someone dead.

I liked the movie League of Extraordinary Gentlemen back in the day, but now I know what he meant when he quoted Americans as "fire enough bullets and hope to hit the target"

[–] UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml 7 points 5 days ago

IIRC You want to suppress the enemy and move to flank them. If you wait to see the enemy you risk giving them the upper hand.

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

In combat a lot of shots are fired without actually trying to hit someone. It's not missing on purpose, if the target is available you shoot it. But in order to maneuver it's safest to keep them in hiding until you're ready to go for the kill. So a lot of shots are fired trying to get that advantage. Of course in peer to peer combat both sides are trying to get that advantage and a ton of infantry training revolves around how exactly to do that. In combat with one trained force and one untrained force it's almost always an easy win for the trained force because the untrained people don't understand how the trained force managed to magically appear in their weakest spot while still shooting at them from the front.

In order to do that you spend bullets. Lots of bullets.

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

1892 Homestead Strike and The Haymarket Affair too.

Happy rabbit holing.

It's like the rich forgot. And while I really don't want to see political violence I am sure that a country with more guns than people is not going to react well to a new gilded age.

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The curriculum is written by the very class that these moments in history shades. Of course they're not taught.

[–] spooky2092@lemmy.blahaj.zone 88 points 6 days ago (1 children)

And guess who was one of the conspirator? Big daddy (Prescott) Bush.

Gods, in the span of 20 years we've gone from a president descended from an attempted fascist overthrow to watching the fascist overthrow happen through "legal" means.

[–] Pollo_Jack@lemmy.world 16 points 5 days ago

This is why it is important to hang traitors.

[–] slumlordthanatos@lemmy.world 41 points 5 days ago (3 children)

Man, Smedley Butler underwent a hell of an arc. From being a proud soldier of American imperialism, to becoming the father of modern police forces, to foiling a fascist plot to overthrow the country and becoming an outspoken anti-war advocate. He went from one end of the political spectrum to the other.

[–] JoeBigelow@lemmy.ca 2 points 5 days ago

Great Behind the Bastards episode on smedley

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[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 66 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Smedley Butler's healthy distrust of those in power was developed at an early age when his parents named him Smedley.

[–] Slovene@feddit.nl 6 points 5 days ago

🎶Smedley cat, Smedley cat ...

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[–] lipilee@feddit.nl 45 points 6 days ago (2 children)

took them 90 years but it worked out in the end

[–] Dozzi92@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

It worked out like 20 years later, let's not kid ourselves. Shit, it worked out then. The government committee suspected wrongdoing but did nothing, nobody got in trouble. It's safe to assume they found another way in. And it's clear they did. American middle class has not improved for 50+ years.

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[–] N0body@lemmy.dbzer0.com 62 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Smedley Butler was a hero on so many levels, a modern day Cincinnatus. He proved himself in battle again and again, and the rich and powerful offered him a throne. He turned it down, because he was a decent man. A man of conscience.

[–] DaMonsterKnees@lemmy.world 14 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Truth, and it invokes fond memories of some of my favorite Bean books, although Orson Scott Card can go fuck himself.

[–] theangryseal@lemmy.world 10 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

I would imagine that it is a bizarre feeling to see people admire so deeply characters that you created, but hate your guts.

I don’t see this with JK Rowling. She pretty much ended the love affair people had with the Potter universe. At least that is true in circles that I hang in. 20 years ago my friends were in love with Harry Potter. They had merchandise everywhere. Now it’s nearly a total boycott.

With Card though, people just can’t let go of those characters. They’re able to separate them so much from him that they can hold onto their love.

Maybe it’s because he doesn’t go out of his way to push his bullshit beliefs down people’s throats whereas Rowling really loves being in the spotlight, pissing people off. Well, that and people just tend to feel a deeper connection to the Ender/Bean characters.

I’ve read all of them but one, and it was the one that came out way later to cover what happens with Ender between Game/Speaker. I bought it, I just never got around to it. Those books gave me a feeling I never got anywhere else. I need to read them again with that newer one in the proper place.

Sorry, you just got me thinking.

The whole 'death of the author' thing is my preferred brand of copium for this.

Writing talent is not reserved for people who aren't complete shitbags - it's just that often, shitbags write to their shitbag interests and that comes over clearly in the work or with very basic analysis. Sometimes they don't. It's best to consider the work on its own merits without too much emphasis on authorial intent, as much as is possible.

Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow were the very first things that popped to mind when I heard this phrase. It's the kind of thing that makes me say "Don't avoid reading if you want to, but maybe avoid buying new printings and opt for second-hand/library copies instead".

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[–] Xtallll@lemmy.blahaj.zone 17 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Margot Robbie, Christian Bale, and John David Washington, were in a movie about that plot, Amsterdam(2022).

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

Thanks, I thought there was a movie but I was having trouble finding the name.

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[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 18 points 5 days ago (5 children)

Interestingly nobody was prosecuted for this, even though the House of Reps determined that it was real. Apparently "conspiracy" isn't always the crime it's supposed to be.

In light of the final outcome of Jan 6, it seems to be exactly what one should have expected.

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

We really need better laws and an independent law enforcement agency to enforce them. A modern day group of untouchables.

[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

I think what we need is to take away money's influence on politics. The most effective way I know to do that is by capping wealth.

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[–] Get_Off_My_WLAN@fedia.io 38 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Major General Smedley Butler seemed like a fairly respectable guy. He was like the worst choice the Wall Street plotters could've picked. The man had already been denouncing capitalism and Wall Street, so of course he testified to Congress when rich people tried to get him to overthrow democracy.

[–] TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 11 points 6 days ago

Very strange indeed to pick Smedley. But actually like with many secret plots, if you go into the details, the conspirators can be surprisingly inept. The December plot to overthrow the Russian tsardom and replace it with a republic comes to mind. It failed because of lack of coordination, communication, and one of the major co-conspirators lost his nerve at the last minute and thus did not add numbers to the troops of rebels. There was plenty of idealism but it lacked the nerves and good plan execution.

[–] dr_scientist@lemmy.world 30 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I remember learning about this as a kid from, of all places, a 1976 detective show called City of Angels (starring Wayne Rogers). Ten-year-old me thought it was so cool they would even broach such a topic on TV. As ways to become radicalised go ...

[–] Hikermick@lemmy.world 8 points 6 days ago

Huh that's really interesting. I had heard of Smedley Butler but was unaware of the plot until I watched the movie Amsterdam. It doesn't pretend to be an accurate depiction, even the names are changed but the coup attempt is the same

[–] Vaggumon@lemm.ee 12 points 6 days ago (1 children)

It just took the another 90 years or so.

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Took them damn well long enough but they finally saw it through

[–] 8000gnat@reddthat.com 5 points 6 days ago (3 children)

This story all comes down to how much you trust Smedley, which, having read his biography, I'm not sure that I do.

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