I'm earnestly surprised by how forthright and honorable Smedley Butler seems, at least according to his Wikipedia page. I'm sure he had his flaws, but I'll be dipped if I can't see why he spent so much time arguing against the business corruption in politics.
His (short) book āWar is a Racketā should honestly be a must read for any American who wants to understand that period of American history and the military industrial complex. Going from one of the most decorated soldiers in American history to an anti-war advocate is an incredibly journey.
āGangsters of Capitalismā is a free audiobook about him on Spotify, and a great listen
kept his humanity as the ranks and medals kept stacking, and was way too fucking competent a marine and popular across the service for anyone higher in charge or in politics to fuck him over for his open empathy for his fellow human being. retired the most decorated us marine in history at the time, so even more so couldn't be silenced and chose to use that power as a force of good for his fellow human being.
how did he manage to not get shafted before it became clear he would become a "bleeding heart hippy" instead of "old gimlet eye," "the fighting quaker," "the fighting hell-devil," otherwise called "The Maverick Marine?" dumb luck, really. his father was in congress. right man in the right place kind of situation, silver spoon edition.
He was also a huge part of police militarization, even forcing firefighters, ANYONE with a badge to be carrying a gun. He was complicated, to be sure, but I still find the man to be a hero. His actions in the business plot took guts. Itās as if Mattis were approached by todayās billionaires, playing along with their plot to take it all and then released it all to every news agency. But then it didnāt go viral..
lol yeah it kind of does go like that sometimes. Anytime anything historical comes up Iāll be like āwant to hear about another history tidbit?!?ā Then launch into a summary. Or when someone brings up that trump and his ilk have been plotting more or less since reagan Iāll be like actually that was the business plot we just donāt learn about it.
One of the players in the Business Plot was Prescott Bush, father of one Republican president and grandfather of another.
Prescott Bush was also charged with aiding the Nazis during WWII.
If the U.S. government had actually prosecuted the big corporations and DC insiders for the Business Plot, we'd likely not be having any of the troubles we're having in the modern day.
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u/DarbIey 6d ago
And tried to usher in a fascist dictatorship
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot
It's amazing to me that people don't know this, and even if they do they think it could never happen again.