JA WestenbergMar 21, 2025

What interests me about IBM and the Reich isn't just corporations = evil.

I would consider that an axiom that leads nowhere particularly useful anymore.

To me, the interesting question is: what incentive structures produced this outcome? And do those same incentive structures still operate today?
https://www.joanwestenberg.com/why-do-corporations-love-authoritarianism/

Why Do Corporations Love Authoritarianism?

The least fun fact you're likely to read today: IBM helped the Nazis. Through its German subsidiary Dehomag, "Big Blue" custom-engineered Hollerith punch card machines specifically designed to meet the Third Reich's requirements for tracking, sorting, and processing human beings. These were specialized systems developed to enhance the efficiency of

westenberg.
Show threadGilbert PilzMar 21, 2025
@Daojoan Corporations were born out of the necessity to diffuse financial risk across a group of investors. To this basic function modern corporations have added the ability to diffuse moral responsibility across a large group of actors. Corporations can commit the most heinous offenses without any one person having to feel that they were responsible for those actions. Look at the statements from the people involved in the opioid epidemic. Nobody felt that they were responsible.
Show threadYlönën
@gpilz @Daojoan This is true also for concentration camps and genocides. Those participating also often cite that they were merely following rules and orders. No single person was to blame and collective blame was partially accepted when it was forced upon them afterwards on trials.
Mar 21, 2025 at 1:47pmWeb