This is what I don’t get. BMW, VW, and Porsche are all companies that supported the Nazis. Assuming that 99% of all employees at those companies when they supported the Nazis are no longer working there, what does it matter that they supported the Nazis? BMW, VW, and Porsche aren’t a real person each. There’s no Mr. BMW going into a secret mountain lair snickering while rubbing their hands together. It’s really just a name for an economic system. The people all change like the boards on the ship of Theseus. And it wasn’t BMW’s, VW’s, or Porsche’s fault for not having just ethics. The entire country was taken over by Nazi’s. Surely the people that resisted were removed or punished. Maybe some employees pulled a Schindler and protected people as best they could. Others tried that CIA sabotage manual shit that’s hilarious. Some were all about Nazis. But, none of those people are there anymore in any effectual number. In other words, BMW is just a name as I understand it. Is there something I’m missing? Do we need to rename it to something else so that suddenly the root essence that supported the Nazi’s is removed? While we’re at it, do we need to rename Germany/Deutchland or shame them until they change their name?
I think it should depend on the company at the time of the purchase, but that the company is still responsible for their branding.
Although, I also think the real answer is that there is no ethical consumption under capitalism and any outrage is being misplaced onto a company instead of the system that caused it.
I agree with many of your points. My last car was a BMW and I currently drive an Audi. This article from 2022 about David de Jong’s book Nazi Billionaires goes into pretty good depth about this
This ☝️. Even buying a BMW, VW, or Porsche (former Nazi conspirators) probably isn’t as bad as buying a Tesla from a current-day Nazi
This is what I don’t get. BMW, VW, and Porsche are all companies that supported the Nazis. Assuming that 99% of all employees at those companies when they supported the Nazis are no longer working there, what does it matter that they supported the Nazis? BMW, VW, and Porsche aren’t a real person each. There’s no Mr. BMW going into a secret mountain lair snickering while rubbing their hands together. It’s really just a name for an economic system. The people all change like the boards on the ship of Theseus. And it wasn’t BMW’s, VW’s, or Porsche’s fault for not having just ethics. The entire country was taken over by Nazi’s. Surely the people that resisted were removed or punished. Maybe some employees pulled a Schindler and protected people as best they could. Others tried that CIA sabotage manual shit that’s hilarious. Some were all about Nazis. But, none of those people are there anymore in any effectual number. In other words, BMW is just a name as I understand it. Is there something I’m missing? Do we need to rename it to something else so that suddenly the root essence that supported the Nazi’s is removed? While we’re at it, do we need to rename Germany/Deutchland or shame them until they change their name?
I think it should depend on the company at the time of the purchase, but that the company is still responsible for their branding.
Although, I also think the real answer is that there is no ethical consumption under capitalism and any outrage is being misplaced onto a company instead of the system that caused it.
I agree with many of your points. My last car was a BMW and I currently drive an Audi. This article from 2022 about David de Jong’s book Nazi Billionaires goes into pretty good depth about this