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submitted 2 months ago by Yezzey@lemmy.ca to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

During the Great Depression, when banks foreclosed on farms, neighbors often showed up at the auctions together.

They’d bid only a few cents, and return the land to the family that lost it. Sometimes a noose hung nearby as a warning to outsiders not to profit from someone else’s ruin.

It was rough, but it worked, communities protected each other when the system wouldn’t.

If a collapse like that happened today, do you think people would still stand together or has that kind of solidarity disappeared? Could it happen again?

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[-] MotoAsh@piefed.social 108 points 2 months ago

They'd try, but there will be corporations bidding from thousands of miles away completely out of reach of any mob action these days.

If we reach penny auction status (and we will), it will be back to functional feudalism for most.

[-] Protoknuckles@lemmy.world 40 points 2 months ago

At that point the community can just refuse to recognize the sale and not let the company onto the property after the sale. The key to these kinds of protests is to make the fight unprofitable.

[-] MotoAsh@piefed.social 50 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Yea, which will work for about 30 minutes until the police show up, who are already used to defending property over lives.

The government doesn't have to be profitable. That's part of socializing business cost, just like how many people that work at walmart are on food stamps. A corrupt government loves to subsidize the rich.

[-] Hazy@aussie.zone 9 points 2 months ago

You talk like people couldn't just escalate further when they absolutely could. Need people to stop undermining collective action with their pessimism

[-] MotoAsh@piefed.social 2 points 2 months ago

I'm not saying don't do it. I'm saying don't expect easy answers like the post implies.

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this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2025
206 points (97.2% liked)

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