Rogue Project's Friendica Social Network

mekka okereke

3 months ago • •

mekka okereke
3 months ago • •

🤔 I see y'all sharing a meme of Nikola Tesla saying "Get my name off your cars, you nazis!" or something like that?

See, this is why knowing history is important.

Nikola Tesla was an anti-Black eugenecist. And it's a good thing for the world that he died broke, because rich eugenecists are worse.

hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/109…

Tesla was a fan of the forced sterilization happening in the USA, and believed that by 2100 mass eugenics would have "purified" the human race of all undesirables.

That's who you're capping for.

Shout out to everyone that's been a Nikola Tesla fan their entire lives, but is just learning this now.

And for those people that want to pretend that this was a long time ago...

Tesla died in 1943.

Joe Biden and Robert DeNiro were already born.

Lewis H. Latimer, the Black scientist that worked with both Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell, working on both the light bulb and the telephone, but never getting properly recognized for either.

He was the Papa Nearest to their Jack Daniels.

Baby Robert de Niro with his dad, looking confidently at the camera. Even as a kid, his swag is undeniable.

A young Joe Biden in his twenties, in a picture taken in the '60s.

mekka okereke :verified: (@mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io)

Content warning: Nikola Tesla, Eugenics

^Hachyderm.io

This entry was edited (3 months ago)

in reply to mekka okereke

Riley S. Faelan

in reply to mekka okereke • 3 months ago • •

Well, but in his defense, he suffered from a quite obvious mental illness by his last days.

Most Nazis can't invoke such an excuse.

in reply to Riley S. Faelan

Shine

in reply to Riley S. Faelan • 3 months ago • •

That is in no way a defense. Quite the contrary, this is also terrible towards mentally ill people.

in reply to Shine

@shine It depends. An important point, I would argue, is that fascism specifically hooks into cognitive shortcuts typical of people with diminished mental capacity, which Tesla almost certainly had in his old age. The evidence is foggier on whether he suffered a genuine break from reality (which would not have been treatable in his lifetime; the first genuine antipsychotic medicines
weren't invented until years and years after he died), but in my non-doctorly opinion, it's consistent with it.

In light of all of this, I approve of not presenting Tesla as a shining example of antifascism, but I also don't think it's accurate to present him as an ardent conscientious fighter for the naziferious causes. Other than the eugenics ideas, there's no real way to retroactively know if his offensive old-age sayings would have been approved by a younger version of him.

Luckily, he also never had any political power, so not much is lost in keeping him buried. It's only really relevant

@mekka okereke @Shine

in reply to Riley S. Faelan

mekka okereke

in reply to Riley S. Faelan • 3 months ago • •

@riley @shine

"fascism specifically hooks into cognitive shortcuts typical of people with diminished mental capacity,"

That's just not true.

Black women are not smarter than white women. White women don't have "diminished mental capacity" relative to Black women. And yet, the majority of white women voters, voted for the openly fascist candidate.

People always try to make excuses for why white people choose fascism so often.

@Riley S. Faelan @Shine

in reply to mekka okereke

Riley S. Faelan

in reply to mekka okereke • 3 months ago • •

Your conclusion is kind of unfair. I would have to cite examples of mass support of fascism arising in the non-white parts of the world. Specifically seeking these out, though, is very hard bcause Google is prone to misinterpret my queries as looking for racists' talking points rather than genuine historic tragedies.

Off the top of my head, I only know of the story of the Rwanda genocide, the story of the Khmer Rouge, and the story of the late-stage Imperial Japan (in which case a solid case could be mad that they imported second-hand proto-fascism from Prussia, and, of course, there were no actual elections in a feudal socity).

Also, diminished mental capacity is not the only design issue in human brains that fascism hooks into. It's just one of the relatively easiest-to-research ones.

in reply to Riley S. Faelan

mekka okereke

in reply to Riley S. Faelan • 3 months ago • •

@riley

The conclusion is not unfair at all. You can cite whichever country you'd like. You won't find a country where the correlation between "diminished mental capacity," however you'd like to define that (please don't try) and fascism, is stronger than the correlation between other, much more obvious factors, and fascism.

In the case of Rwanda, it was likely "Will I benefit from the slaughter of the people deemed as other?" and "Am I a terrible person that doesn't care about other people?" Highly educated and accomplished people fit into these categories.

And in the US, white people that are very racist and sexist, tend to vote for one candidate. Education level, income level, etc, are much less relevant.

"Economic variables like education, income and employment made a negligible difference."

vox.com/identities/2017/12/15/…

The past year of research has made it very clear: Trump won because of racial resentment

Another study produces the same findings we’ve seen over and over again.

^{German Lopez (Vox)}

@Riley S. Faelan

in reply to mekka okereke

tillian 🦊🇰🇿 ACAB

in reply to mekka okereke • 3 months ago • •

@riley

this so much. it's easy to make an assumption that someone would do such a vile thing only because there's something fundamentally "wrong" with their brains or something, but it's dangerous because from it inevitably follows that people with mental disabilities or low intelligence are more evil or bigoted (which they are not), and that smart or educated people are incapable of also doing or willingly choosing evil. (which they absolutely are)

@Riley S. Faelan

This entry was edited (3 months ago)

in reply to tillian 🦊🇰🇿 ACAB

Jürgen Hubert

in reply to tillian 🦊🇰🇿 ACAB • 3 months ago • •

@mynameistillian @riley

Hannah Arendt knew what she was talking about with "The Banality of Evil".

@tillian 🦊🇰🇿 ACAB @Riley S. Faelan

Auschwitz Memorial

3 months ago • •

Auschwitz Memorial
3 months ago • •

11 March 1934 | A French Jew, Marcel Milsztejn, was born in Paris.

He arrived at #Auschwitz on 31 August 1942 in a transport of 1,000 Jews deported from Drancy. He was among the 676 people murdered after selection in a gas chamber.

Black and white photo of a young boy with short hair in a suit jacket. On his chest - a Jewish star with the word "Juif" in the middle.

#auschwitz

in reply to Auschwitz Memorial

RedAlert (Michael)

in reply to Auschwitz Memorial • 3 months ago • •

🕯🖤🕯🖤🕯
#keinvergessen
#KämpfenBeginntMitErinnern
#niewiederfaschismus

#niewiederistjetzt ‼️

#AllezusammengegendenFaschismus
#afdverbotsverfahrenjetzt
#stopptDieBrandstifter
#WirSindDieBrandmauer

#niewiederistjetzt #keinvergessen #kampfenbeginntmiterinnern #niewiederfaschismus #AllezusammengegendenFaschismus #afdverbotsverfahrenjetzt #stopptDieBrandstifter #wirsinddiebrandmauer

Ars Technica

3 months ago • •

Ars Technica
3 months ago • •

Elon Musk claims bad actors in Ukraine are behind “massive“ X cyberattack
Will users ever abandon the Twitter brand? X outages suggest the answer is no.
arstechnica.com/tech-policy/20…

Elon Musk claims bad actors in Ukraine are behind “massive“ X cyberattack

^{Ashley Belanger (Ars Technica)}

in reply to Ars Technica

Ed

in reply to Ars Technica • 3 months ago • •

let me fix that: Elon Musk makes unsubstantiated claims...

in reply to Ars Technica

Pablonius Monk 🇺🇦

in reply to Ars Technica • 3 months ago • •

Sports remains the main attraction over on X. Yesterday's outage notwithstanding, I think it's going to take pro athletes migrating to other platforms for any dent to be made in that trend.

Glyn Moody

3 months ago • •

Glyn Moody
3 months ago • •

Starmer to avoid immediate counter-tariffs if #Trump puts levies on UK #steel - theguardian.com/business/2025/… bravo; every single country must respond similarly. #trumpcession

Starmer to avoid immediate counter-tariffs if Trump puts levies on UK steel

British PM has discussed issue with president, as US trade war with Canada escalates

^{Julia Kollewe (The Guardian)}

#trump #trumpcession #steel

in reply to Glyn Moody

Acesabe

in reply to Glyn Moody • 3 months ago • •

There's still a steel industry in the UK?!
And why would we be selling to the US anyway?

in reply to Acesabe

Glyn Moody

in reply to Acesabe • 3 months ago • •

@acesabe I think the industry here is owned by an Indian company...

@Acesabe

mekka okereke 3 months ago • •

Auschwitz Memorial 3 months ago • •

Ars Technica 3 months ago • •

Glyn Moody 3 months ago • •

E-Komik 3 months ago • •

Jürgen Hubert 3 months ago • •

Randahl Fink 3 months ago • •

gentlegardener 4 months ago (Received 3 months ago) • •

Random Cat Every Hour 3 months ago • •

NS Online 4 months ago (Received 3 months ago) • •

E-Komik 3 months ago • •

E-Komik 3 months ago • •

Pete Prodoehl 🍕 3 months ago • •

Nando161 3 months ago • •

AI6YR Ben 3 months ago • •

Random Cat Every Hour 3 months ago • •

Day Use X Mockin' Uh 3 months ago • •

E-Komik 3 months ago • •

mekka okereke
3 months ago • •

Auschwitz Memorial
3 months ago • •

Ars Technica
3 months ago • •

Glyn Moody
3 months ago • •

E-Komik
3 months ago • •

Jürgen Hubert
3 months ago • •

Randahl Fink
3 months ago • •

gentlegardener
4 months ago (Received 3 months ago) • •

Random Cat Every Hour
3 months ago • •

NS Online
4 months ago (Received 3 months ago) • •

E-Komik
3 months ago • •

E-Komik
3 months ago • •

Pete Prodoehl 🍕
3 months ago • •

Nando161
3 months ago • •

AI6YR Ben
3 months ago • •

Random Cat Every Hour
3 months ago • •

Day Use X Mockin' Uh
3 months ago • •

E-Komik
3 months ago • •