• @[email protected]
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    121
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    2 days ago

    … As opposed to a Nazi running the US space program, which this guy saw the day of.

    • OptionalOP
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      552 days ago

      Well you’re not wrong. He’d have to be pretty into it though to know all that at the time. It wasn’t hidden but it wasn’t promoted either, for obvious reasons.

      • @blackbelt352
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        2 days ago

        From what I’m finding about him, the only reason he really joined in with the nazi party was to be able to make rockets and do aerospace engineering. It’s not the best look but it’s not like he was also a psychopath strong desire to kill Jewish people.

        • @captainlezbian
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          302 days ago

          Ok but he did knowingly benefit from aiding genocide. And not in a “halfway across the world” way, in a “used concentration camp labor” way

          • @[email protected]
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            112 days ago

            Which honestly would have been fine (relatively) given the situation had he fucking addressed it after the fact

            “Yes, Jewish slaves built my rockets before being killed. Had I not helped, I’d have been one of them” is all he needed to say, it’s a very easy to understand position

            “I’m apolitical” is what he said instead

            Verner was a fucking Nazi, only a guilty man would say that shit

            • @captainlezbian
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              32 days ago

              Yeah. The bar isn’t at Schindler, it should’ve been, but it’s definitely above apolitical

        • @mkwt
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          332 days ago

          He also oversaw slave labor as part of his job, and he was well aware that the rockets were terror bombing civilians in England.

          More prisoners died building the V-2 rockets than were killed by them in attacks.

          • @Dasus
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            132 days ago

            I’m not gonna defend his actions. But also, they choice there’s would’ve been to abandon rocketry and become an armed rebel…or keep your good position while trying to ignore all the nasty shit that goes into it.

            I’m not excusing his behaviour, but from a rational, realistic, perspective how many of us would really be up for throwing everything away, risking everyone you love and know, etc etc.

            If everyone would’ve been against the nazis, they wouldn’t have gotten that powerful to begin with.

            “Since we’re stuck in here, you might as well answer my question about the French resistance…”

            Again not defending or excusing nazi fucks. Just pointing out hindsight is 2020

            • @mkwt
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              82 days ago

              Oh yeah. I absolutely think that the US did the right thing with Von Braun with Paperclip, including his naturalized citizenship and the eventual National Medal of Science, that was well-earned.

              I just think we should absolutely not white wash the history at the same time. People are complex entities who are capable of both evil and good.

            • @[email protected]
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              42 days ago

              Problem is he pretended he was apolitical and that he didn’t know after the fact

              When a simple “yeah they’d have fucking killed me had I tried escaping” would have been a lot less self-incriminating than “idc, me like rockets :)”

            • @captainlezbian
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              22 days ago

              There was always defecting. He was a respected rocket scientist

        • @[email protected]
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          142 days ago

          The V2 assembly site was located right next to a concentration camp, and they used slave labor from that concentration camp to build the rockets.

          Do we know for certain that he believed in the ideals of the Nazi party? No. Did he ever try to fight the system in even the smallest way? Also no.

          The best you can say for him is that he was indifferent to the suffering of the slaves being used to assemble the rockets, and willing to allow the rockets to be used to attack London.

          In the “Nazi bar” analogy, he’s a Nazi who goes to the Nazi bar wearing a Nazi uniform, and the best you can hope for is that he’s going for the beer and not because he likes hanging out with the other Nazis.

          • @blackbelt352
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            1 day ago

            I agree the nazi bar analogy is still valid in this case, dude was part of the nazi party and benefitted from the atrocities.

            The unfortunate reality of WW2 is that a lot of our modern understanding of a lot of fields of science come from the horrors conducted by all nations, we learned extensive amounts of what is medically possible from the cruel unforgivable experiments done on people by the Nazis in concentration camps and by the truly horrific experikents by Unit 731. The breakthroughs in manufacturing to ramp up war production. We went from planes made of balsa and canvas to fighters and bombers made of metal carrying payloads never before possible. The harnessing of the atom by US scientists for atomic weapons. We literally wiped previously inhabited islands in the pacific off the face of the map in nuclear testing, we chose the worst possible domestic location for nuclear testing that carried radiation across the whole nation, that Kodak picked up on the testing in Rochester NY.

            I’m not saying this to excuse what the Nazis did, they were clearly far far worse with their scientific experimentation.

  • @TwoBeeSan
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    262 days ago

    Had a man tell me that he as a first generation American, who essentially lived the ideal, Never dreamed of seeing democracy possibly leave the country.

    Hearing that from people who have actually lived in different circumstances makes your eyes open if they weren’t already.

  • @HessiaNerd
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    362 days ago

    Is he talking about musk? Cause he isnt running shit. Owner, unfortunately yes. But he isn’t capable of running a washing machine.

    • OptionalOP
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      312 days ago

      Yes. And if he’s able to fire everyone he’s running it. I agree he’s unable to do it well, but there it is.

      • @teamevil
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        132 days ago

        Also pretty sure the supervillains have a whole staff to do the dirty work.

      • SkaveRat
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        62 days ago

        While true, NASA is currently quite dependant on SpaceX (although shotwell is doing more of the running than musk is, luckily)

  • kindenough
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    282 days ago

    Ach ja so, Werner “I aim for ze stars, but sometimes hit London” von Braun.

    “When ze rockets go up, who cares where zey come down? Zat’s not my department,”

  • @Sorgan71
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    -82 days ago

    spaceX is not the US space program you dingalingus.

    • @[email protected]
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      192 days ago

      Wish it weren’t, but it kinda is. The alternative is Boeing and they just can’t deliver. Today’s launch to Europa was supposed to be on SLS.

      As a huge space buff I’m grateful for spacex, but wish Elon would die of an aneurysm in his sleep. Like tonight.

      • @Sorgan71
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        -22 days ago

        But they are not. The space program is run by nasa. Thats why spaceX was a big deal. It was a private space company. The US space program is not private.

        • @[email protected]
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          42 days ago

          People are generally under the impression that NASA was actually making the equipment that put astronauts on the moon, for some reason.

          They didn’t, but they would tell manufacturers what they needed and then they’d compete to make it (in theory) and modify existing technology.

          In that sense NASA is just doing what it’s always done when it buys a rocket from SpaceX or whoever, the problem is the corporate expression of neoliberalism (See The Man Who Broke Capitalism) has devastated the competency of their competitors.

  • @Pacattack57
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    -132 days ago

    Even though he’s not wrong I would bet my left but this is a fake tweet or at the very least a troll account.