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.
The curriculum is written by the very class that these moments in history shades. Of course they're not taught.
the Battle for Blair Mountain
Welp, here's another rabbit hole on the list. See yall later 👋😀
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"
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.
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.
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.
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.
This is why it is important to hang traitors.
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.
He also won the Congressional Medal of Honor twice.
Great Behind the Bastards episode on smedley
I listened to an audiobook about him.
I'm not sure I e ever been so impressed by the conduct and ethics of any other individual on earth.
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.
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.
Should've been executed tbh.
We'd have a much better country if they'd done that, no doubt.
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?
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.
The Elite of the Confederacy should have been hanged and their property distributed to former enslaved people and poor free men.
Wow. This makes so much sense.
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!!!
No, it means next time the world goes to war with fascists, they need to finish the job.
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.
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.
FDR waved prosecution in exchange for the fascist senators involved. Voting for his legislation.
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.
We really need better laws and an independent law enforcement agency to enforce them. A modern day group of untouchables.
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.
Arresting people for conspiracy is only for Rosenbergs, not for the rich.
Margot Robbie, Christian Bale, and John David Washington, were in a movie about that plot, Amsterdam(2022).
I can't believe I had to scroll down this far to find someone mentioned this. THANKS
Thanks, I thought there was a movie but I was having trouble finding the name.
Smedley Butler's healthy distrust of those in power was developed at an early age when his parents named him Smedley.
🎶Smedley cat, Smedley cat ...
took them 90 years but it worked out in the end
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.
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.
Truth, and it invokes fond memories of some of my favorite Bean books, although Orson Scott Card can go fuck himself.
It just took the another 90 years or so.
The early 20th century labor movement negotiated with capitalists for a temporary ceasefire in the class war. Like peace with Putin, it wasnt peace, just an opportunity for the 1 % to grow stronger.
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