I'll never get over the fact that the wealthy industrialists involved in the business plot deadass thought Smedley Butler, a man who >was opposed to war profiteering>encouraged veterans to organize to secure benefits>condemned the government’s links to big businesswould make a perfect candidate to lead a fascist coup. Butler's leftist positions weren't even secretive at all, so were the plotters just stupid?
>>18705085i always thought the business plot was a little overblown. i'm sure plenty of wall street saw a future with hitler but it's clear from the timeline we're living in that they didn't take the pro-fascist direction. wall street's ties to the rise of the ussr probably went a lot deeper but that's inconvenient for modern day leftists to chirp about.
>>18705085he clearly made it up and for all his bullshit, he never once named any names.
>>18705093so were henry ford and goerge hw bush's dad not actually involved? i'm genuinely asking i didn't know it mostly came from his own claims.
Committee: So a coalition of America's wealthiest industrialists secretly organized to overthrow the constitutional government of the United States?Butler: Yes sir.Committee: And to lead this fascist regime, they selected you, a man who has spent the last several years publicly denouncing capitalism as a racket and comparing yourself to Al Capone?Butler: Yes sir.Committee: Did any of these industrialists express concern that your very public socialist sympathies might present an obstacle to installing you as dictator?Butler: No sir.Committee: Did they perhaps assume you would simply... change your mind?Butler: They didn't say, sir.Committee: General, do you have any documents? Written correspondence? A contract? Meeting minutes? Anything at all?Butler: No sir.Committee: Any other witnesses to these specific conversations?Butler: No sir.Committee: So we have your word, and your word alone, that America's business elite entrusted a coup d'état to a man whose entire public identity was built on opposing everything they stood for.Butler: Yes sir.Committee: And you find this plan... sound?Butler: No sir.Committee: Then why would they propose it?Butler: I couldn't say, sir. Perhaps they were confident, sir.Committee: Confident in what, exactly?Butler: Confident men often are, sir.Committee: [pause] No further questions.
