A Geek History of Time - Episode 157 - Henry Ford, Nazis, and Square Dancing Part II

Episode Date: May 7, 2022

BELLS Blow in her face and she'll follow you anywhere. You are destroying the Constitution of the United States may God have mercy on your souls. Good day. Yes. It's a very sad word. We could be saying that we just elected the right white man to power. That's creepy but that's a different category of creepy. Zizuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz and find out what fucking truth that man is trying to get at. Like with most episodes I can bring him back to wrestling. Oh, right.

Well, he's got other people who work for him who also do things and they can get new take-off. Okay. And he's got to get inside into smaller worlds after all. Fuck you. I still don't give a shit about getting fake property in a fantasy game 1.0-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5-1.5- This is a real world. We connect an artery to a real world. My name is Ed Blaylock, I'm a real history and English teacher again in Northern California. And just in the last week and a half I managed to achieve a

something of a nerd goal. I got a hold of the new version of the new avatar if you will of the avatar of Cain model for the elder the Elves of Warhammer 40,000, and it is honest to God, one of the most gorgeous models Games Workshop has ever put out. And I have not gotten chance to sit down and actually work on it yet, but I'm very, very, very excited. So that's me. How about you? Well, I'm Damien Harmony.

I'm a Latin teacher and a drama teacher up here in Northern California. And I just finished the longest strike that my district has ever had. So as much as I try to keep these timeless, I think this is relevant to what we're all over the world. Yeah, and that's the only reason I'm indulging. But yeah, we had an eight day strike that lasted 12 days.

Yeah, because weekends. Yeah, you count the weekends. But even counting eight days turns out longer than any strike we've had. I double checked. If I'm wrong, I'm happy to be wrong, but I double checked, there was a four day in 1989 and then a five day in 1991.

I might have them reversed. Okay. So a total of nine days back then, stretch over three years. Yeah. We have also had a total of nine days stretch over three years, because we had a one day strike. Yeah. But this time we had an eight day strike, all of which could have thoroughly been avoided at any step along the way. Yeah. The, I mean, we don't want to spend too much time, you know, indulging know indulging literally belaboring the point just Well done. Thank you. Not even mad about that one. Yeah, go union sugary

But like yeah, no the circumstances were just ass nine Yes, they continue to be by the way. He sent us a letter Saying that is incumbent upon us to model good behavior What what is that even fucking me? I will send you the letter I gave him in response between episodes. Oh yeah. Oh I'm looking forward to reading that. Chef's kiss.

Because as Fred and the show Bishop, I kinda like to say, fucking sideways with a sleeper sofa. Yeah, no, wow. Yeah, I took off my earrings. Yeah. And I took off the hoops. Yeah, put on my friend's rings. So nice.

And started typing it out. Yeah, I like it. Yeah. All right. So, hey, when last we talked, speaking of unions, and anti-union assholes, yeah, hit my Ford. Yeah, yeah. Turns out he needed to hire a man named Harry Bennett And anti-union assholes. Yes. Henry Ford. Yeah. Turns out he needed to hire a man named Harry Bennett,

because Henry Ford, remember, saw that human beings were like cogs that you could replace. Yeah. And his idea was so good that all he needed was someone to violently institute this idea, and then everybody would realize how good an idea it was. Okay. Like you do.

Yeah, wait. Okay. Wait. Yeah. That's a markedly different interpretation of this series of events that you usually get in most American history textbooks. Yeah. You have my attention.

Yeah. So, let's talk Harry Bennett. Okay. Harry Bennett worked in the Ford Service Department. Service Department? Read Union Busting. Oh, okay. Yeah.

So he worked there. Service Department. That's what it was called. Now you may ask, why would a man who believed in welfare capitalism who instituted the 40 hour work week and a decent wage, more than double the regular rate at the time that he instituted it in 1915. Yeah. Why would he hire someone to break union activism by actually beating the shit out of unionists inside the plant? Well, because like any good capitalist of his ilk, he believed that

He believed that he carried this internalized idea that whatever workers got, that got because of his large ass, because he was the big man. No bless oblige. No bless oblige. And like, no, I'm going to pay people a really good wage, and I'm going to institute a 40 hour work week, because after 40 hours is when mistakes start getting much more noticeable like they happen more frequently and because if I want people to show up on time, do their job and do what I want them to do, I'm going to have to pay them what they're worth. Well, so he had, as any good capitalist of his ilk had, he had the built-in kind of

belief in this idea that whatever his workers got, they got because of him. He was the great man. I am daddy. He was the genius. Yes, he was daddy. Yes. And spare the rod. And spare the rod's well, the child.

And he would pay them that wage because he wanted to attract people who were going to be reliable who'd show up and do their job and you know and have a sense of professionalism so you're gonna you're gonna pay them well because he saw that as productivity because because and he absolutely good yeah he totally saw that as as as the the value he puts into the workers is going to be the value he gets out of the work. Again, these are cogs that he's making sure he machines really well.

Yes, he's gonna, he's gonna, he's going to get the best parts for his machine that he's gonna get. Exactly. He's going to lubricate them properly, he's gonna look after them. Now, he's going to only work them at a certain speed for a certain amount of time. Right.

Because to use a car analogy, if you wind up the engine too hard, and then pop the clutch, you're going to burn out your differential, and that's going to cost you a shit ton of money. There you go. So he's going to do these things, because that's how you maximize the productivity and the efficiency of the wonderful Swiss watch machine that he has constructed. And he did start as a watch repairman.

Yes, see? Which, see I'm making the reference. Absolutely. You know, which he's the like Dr. Manhattan, I just realized, is an answer to him because Dr. Manhattan becomes completely a Louvre and stops caring. Yes.

And I think that's really interesting. Oh, yeah. Well, it is still had a huge dick, whereas Henry Ford was a huge dick. It was a massive fallace of a human being. But what if he'd gotten started in Florida? No. This analogy would have made so much more sense. Yeah.

Did I ever tell you about that? No. My grandma, my dear sweet Nana, who is the only living grandparent I have as of this recording. Okay. She told me once, you know Damien, when God rested on the seventh day, he put his hand down. And that's why Michigan is the way it is. And I had no filter at 10. And I said, so what about Florida? I did not get to dirt. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha You know, I think I think there's some kind of spiritual resonance involved. Mm-hmm. Oh, and people ask where I lived in Florida.

Yeah. I always tell them midway up the shaft, heading toward the taint. So, uh, uh, again, you know, yeah, the less it's about that. It's hot, it's sweaty, it's wrinkled. I mean, it's all this. Yeah, it all feels like it's wrinkled. The moss is all growing, starting in that area. Yes. Bungle, everything everywhere. Yeah, it all feels like it. The moss is all growing, starting in that area. Yes, fungal, everything everywhere.

Yeah, mildew, just. The water's just a little salty. Just a little, yeah. Jockage, yeah. So, I can't tell completely. Oh, but. Swiss watch. Swiss watch.

Dr. Manhattan is also an answer to deism. Yes. The idea that God, that God is a watchmaker or built it and walked away. Yes. Which Siler is the opposite of that. Siler is the same. He's Henry Ford with superpowers.

Yeah, pretty much. Which is basically what Azimandis was. And if you remember, Azimandis was meeting with Leia Coka. Yeah, oh shit. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Wow. Yeah.

Man the layers. So, but, and the thing is getting back to Henry Ford. Sure. The deist idea, I'd be really interested in now. I want to get into Henry Ford's religious upbringing as a kid, because I'm going to bet money. Like I would bet you a jelly donut right now that he was some kind of mainline northern Protestant, Presbyterian or northern Episcopalian, something like that.

Yeah, basically like that. Yeah, basically Yankee. Yeah, with that same Dutch Protestant semi-deistic outlook on the universe. So the thing is, for a guy like him, if he's coming from that kind of background, there is a subconscious level on which you're going to see yourself in a paternalistic big daddy in the sky, God kind of vein. And so the moment your workers start saying, hey, about this other little issue here,

like yes, your pain is real well, we appreciate that your pain is real well. We appreciate that you're giving us a weekend when that's not a standard thing yet for everybody else. We appreciate all that. Can we also maybe talk about breaks during the day? Can we maybe talk about how we get scheduled? Can we like all of the other shit that can take a well-paid 40-hour-a-week job and

turn it into misery? Yes. That like it's really good to have somebody on your side as your advocate to talk to management because again, they're the ones with all the money and they're the ones who control your job. So, yeah, so of course he's going to be like, well, you up to little fucks. Well, and he is a Piscopalian by the way. Oh, okay, well, and he would walk every Sunday to church.

Yeah, yeah. So, he's, you know, he's a Michiganer. Yeah. Huge, like my, I'm baptized of Piscopalian. Okay. Because my mom was given a car. This is a true story. Okay.

So how much more Michigan can we get? Can we get, yeah. That you baptize our ranch child and we'll give you a car, but that's exactly why I was baptized so that my mom could have a car. But it was really important to my grandparents that I was baptized, which I understand why. I get it.

Mom didn't care, so sweeten the deal. Okay. But, but yeah, I was, but the Episcopalans are big and big and deer born. Like that's a normal thing. He's buried in a Episcopalian, it's a big and big and deer born. Like that's a normal thing. He's buried in a Episcopalian cemetery. Okay, well there you go. So yeah, my grandfather at the day that he died,

there was an Episcopalian bishop who came in and gave the Episcopalian last rights, whatever it was, maybe. And- You know, they're Catholic light. Yeah, they're the American version of the Anglicans. Yes. Yeah.

So it's Diet Coke Zero. Barely even crypto Catholic. Right. And my grandma now is actually very concerned that my children are not baptized. And I was like, well, she's not saying a car. This is a family tradition. But anyway, Henry Ford. So you're taking a Chrysler seabring out of it.

Henry Ford was obsessed with, of course, productivity, and he implemented something called the Speed Up Plan, which literally sped up the assembly lines. Oh, yeah, gradually. Yeah, just a little more easily. Like a snail being boiled. Yeah, it's a little more easily. Like a snail being boiled. Yeah, from scratch. Gross as fuck. Yeah. But, you know, start with cold water and eat it gradually.

Yeah. So given that these are human beings who are working though, they actually noticed. And the strain was leading to many of them talking, which you don't do on the line, and thinking about organizing. So Henry Ford met a man named Harry Bennett. Now, Harry Bennett was in the Navy. When he was, I think the term is off-ship. Yeah.

Okay, he was off-ship in New York in 1916. Remember, when Henry Ford was going around trying to sell peace? Because it's better productivity. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Henry Bennett or Harry Bennett had gotten into a fight, a street brawl because his sailor. And one of Ford's associates was on his way to a meeting with Ford and he saw what had happened and was impressed with the then 24 year old sailor Harry Bennett. He talked to the police into, presumably because of how he had acquitted himself in the fight.

Yes, and Harry Bennett was, like I went down a big rabbit hole for a very good, he was a boxer in the Navy. Oh, okay, so there you go. Yeah, okay. So he talked to the police into releasing Bennett because if you're rich you can do that. And he had also been a newspaper columnist for Hearst. So he had it in with the police to say like go of that one sailor.

Oh, okay. And then he took Bennett with him to the meeting with Henry Ford. Ford, after hearing how Bennett had acquitted himself, literally asked only one question of Harry Bennett before hiring him on. What? Can you shoot? Are you fucking kidding me? So.

It's so, so I hear that you're good at beating the shit out of people. How are you arranged to come back? Yeah. Mother fucker. So Bennett got put in charge of security at the Rouge Replant, and he would make sure that he acted tough and might crazy the whole time

to keep people scared. You are just stunned still. What the actual fuck? Yeah. Like, okay, no. You know, I need a man for the service to mark. There are not, there are not very many times in history. Mm-hmm.

When you can point to somebody and go, that right there, that right there, that's lawful evil. Yes. But, but here we are, Henry Ford. Yes, a hundred's lawful evil. Yes. But here we are, Henry Ford. Yes, a hundred percent lawful evil. Yeah. And this guy, Benet, like neutral. At least neutral.

Yeah. Like, like no man. I think honestly, Harry Benet might have just been neutral. neutral. Okay. Because he just seemed to be like, he is what Hawkeye said that he was a weapon that you point in a direction. Okay.

That's what I'm getting. Although I think by association with Ford, he ends up going evil. Well, well, see what you do there is you have the big and parentheses, evil tendencies, like the gods of us guard in, you know, first edition AD&D, where chaotic, neutral parentheses good. Like the good tendency. They tend to word good wheel, but mostly it's just, you know, the strong survive and exactly.

But Valor will, will, will, yeah. Valor will learn you a place in Valhalla fighting the good fight and etc. But like, no, this is,or will learn you a place in Valhalla and fighting the good fight and etc. But like, no, this, this is, I see what you're saying. Yeah. I guess I would need to find out more about like, how much did Bennett get a kick out of this?

Like, how much? How much? Okay. He set up target practice with a BB gun on site and he would shoot it at a filing cabinet in the basement. So you just hear pings all day long at work because Harry Bennett, the guy in charge of the service department, is shooting stuff on site. He also shot a target in his office with a 45, pretty regularly.

He was strapped. In his office. Yes. And he also... Okay, no wait. Okay, wait. Yes. And he also, you're getting, okay, no wait. Okay, but okay, but you're gonna miss out on the buildup to this next sentence. Okay, go ahead.

He would also bring his pet lions to his office so that he could paint their portraits. Bullshit. No, dead serious. Bull shit. Dead serious. Lions? dead serious. Bullshit. Dead serious. Lions? Yes.

The Detroit Lions. Bull on, because of course that's where the football team, because owners of NFL teams are universally shit-headed. Yes. So that shouldn't surprise me at all. Yeah. But yeah. So.

So what you're saying is, and you're not going to get this reference because you, you somehow were immune to it at the beginning of the, of the pandemic. Sure. But, but you're saying that Henry Ford essentially hired Joe exotic to act as the head of security with more class, with a Fedora. Okay. Yeah. All right. more class with a fedora. Okay. Yeah. All right. With a better wardrobe.

Yeah. All right. All right. Joe exotic with a better word. Yeah. I would say a more purposeful and again, true evil, not chaotic evil. Like he's not swinging by the tail of a cat. Yeah.

You know, he is purposeful. Yeah, here's the thing. Joe Exotic is one of the closest examples, like looking at his behavior, looking at his whole, like everything in that documentary. And of course, I know everything's been edited and whatever, but like, this stuff that we did see is enough for me. Pretty much be convinced that Joe Exotic

is as a matter of fact, chaotic fucking neutral. Like he does not have a plan. He does not think more than five minutes into the future. Right. It's just self-gradification like right now. Yeah, he's if Belcar was given human form. Yes. Yes.

Sort of only, yeah. Oh, I like her, she's crazy, let's fuck. Oh, I want a cat for now. Yeah, yeah, pretty much. And this guy, very Bennett. Bennett is calculating Yes.

And very clearly. Consciously intimidating. Consciously intimidating. This is this is solidly neutral needle. And I'm still getting over like the lions. The lions threw me off for a second, but I want to get back to he was shooting on occasion. He shot a 45. Yes, in his office. In his office. Yes. So now of the two of us, I'm the guy. I have fired a 45. You have, you have.

You have. I don't mean to say you haven't fired again. No, so I recognize the power and the kicker. Yes, yes. I'm the one who thinks about guns more often. Oh, yes. I'm the one who's more interested in them. Quite so.

So, the thing is, I'm less concerned about the boom and the kick and the power of the firearm on the user's end. Right. And I'm more concerned about he's firing a 45 in a business environment. I mean, gradually it's a factory, so there's a lot of brick work. he's firing a 45 in a business environment. I mean, it's a factory, so there's a lot of brick work. You, okay. Yeah, but still, yeah.

And that'll finally cabinets. So, yeah. Okay, but okay. It's part of this is it's an artifact of the times. Yes. Just because it was, you know, the early 1900s, but the level of cartoonish batshit. Oh, it's going to get worse. That's in wow. Yeah, because now we put these pieces into place. Okay. So Harry Bennett would go out and hire the best strike break striker that he could too

And this typically included football players boxers wrestlers Detroit River gang members Okay, he was essentially for its fixer and in being the fixer for Ford Bennett became a very wealthy man Well, yeah, I could you be better paid than anybody else the character that always comes to mind is Alan Nierry for Michael Corleone Okay He built several homes that are still huge landmarks in the area today And they're the stuff that wealthy villains who had family money Would have done they came complete with hidden stairways, access to boats to escape, horses,

so on. Well, of course, because his entire empire was built on fear. Yeah, and he was such a shitheele that he actually had to move to an island away from Dearborn because he'd done such horrific violence and intimidation in his efforts to bust union activities that he feared reprisal. Well, yeah. So he was kind of a prisoner of his own mind on some levels because he's scared to death they're going to come to his house. And so he fortressed up. Yeah, which only reinforces how harsh he would be in day to day because now he's created

a situation where well, you know know it's them or me. Right, yeah, I can't let them win because if they win, then I'm fucked. Wow, you sure sound like someone I've had to deal with for the last 12 days. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Yes, yes, shit, lily livery. Yes, sorry. That's okay. Harry Bennett was well armed. It had lots of fortresses. Some of his properties also included things like swimming pools that were set above a viewing room, which had its own wet bar,

so that he could stare at women who were swimming from below. So, okay, well that was, yeah. That has been a, I mean, that was a cultural thing. But it's also like seriously bond villain bad guy. Oh, well, yeah. You know, the same, that same lodge also had a central room that enabled him to spy on other rooms because of the way the venting system was deliberately set up. And it had hidden bookcases that led to getaway boats, which he could then take to get to an

airstrip and then escape by plane. And then he'd regularly run drills to memorize his roots if he was ever attacked, running up and down his stairs with his eyes closed. Wow. And then let's talk about hideouts. You want hideouts? Okay.

No problem. He was a fan of log cabins. Okay. But he, like the look of log cabins. He knew that he needed concrete bunkers. So there were concrete bunkers painted to look like log cabins. And in those, he had bookshelves that rotated into secret rooms, look out posts, rooms behind fireplaces, hidden guns everywhere, and even mounted machine guns. Well, because this was the, you know, 19 teens, 1920s, possibly into the 30s before it became illegal for private citizens to own automatic weapons, which actually, technically it's not illegal for private citizens.

The only one you just have to get a federal license to do it, which costs a shit ton of money. Yeah. And if anybody could, it would be him. Yeah. So he also had a California compound. And I mean compound. In case he and his boss and his family and his henchmen and his associates ever got run out of Michigan. They could escape to California.

It came equipped with 14 bedrooms and all the luxury that one could want. I really actually want to go visit all of these places now. And I really really want to run an adventure in D&D or Star Wars where the PCs grant his fucking wish. And hunt him down. Yes. Now, after October of 1929, just kind of just random exactly, you know obviously vehicle production took a massive hit right there Yeah, there's little to no purchasing of new cars production fell greatly thereafter

Yeah, and as a result employment falls as well and in Detroit those who still worked had to deal with massive wage cuts Within two years from 29 real wages of the auto workers in the Detroit area had dropped by over 50%. Holy shit. Suicides went up to 568 in 1931. What were they in 1929? Oh, I see.

Were you able to look it up? I think there were less than half of that. Oh, good. Yeah. There was neither state nor federal welfare support, by the way. So it fell to the counties and the cities and the churches. Because all of that, and any and all federal safety nets are the result of. Exactly.

Like, oh shit. The new deal. Yeah, this old stuff's not working. This isn't working. Yeah. By 1932, there were over 400,000 unemployed families in Detroit. The crushing pressure of poverty combined with the lack of relief and support

by anyone who had the means to provide it led to mass mobilization. This is why people get kind of fetishy and looking for a unicorn when they're like, no, the people really need to rise up. And it's like we're trying to get to the point before we get to the guillotine. Yeah, we don't, we don't. Yeah, the people really need to rise up. And it's like, we're trying to get to the point before we get to the Vietnaps.

Yeah, we don't. We don't. Yeah, like no, it never goes well. Yeah, well, you know, and the thing is, yeah, I think I think the thing is, you talk about, well, you know, we just, we got to, you know, those, those folks who prior to the previous presidential administration, we're like, well, if we're not gonna go all the way into like Bernie, then we might as well

like Trump, because things are just, we gotta burn the whole thing down. What's that? I can't have Meatloaf fine. I'll stab myself in the dick in front of the restaurant. Pretty much, yeah. But there, I mean, that outlook is outlook. Yeah. Is built around this, this romanticization of the, the revolution. It's because there's nobody in living memory of having gone through it.

Well, one, there's nobody in living memory having gone through it. And I think the right loves fetishizing nationalistic violence. Yes. The left, the, the, the same, the extremity of the left wants to romanticize revolutionary violence. I would say not even revolution, well, revolutionary theory. They're still beating off to that. Okay. But you're right. There's still that weird, like, yeah. There's still that, like, you know, like, like solid leftist tankies.

Right, I just, what I see is like, there is massive nationalistic violence happening and the response to that is like, well, you know, if unions would stop selling out their workers. Like, bitch, you are the union. Yeah, I know. Like if you're in the union, participate in the fucking union. Yeah.

Like don't give me this if unions were selling. No, you want another reason unions are selling out their workers? Okay, they're not. They're not, but the ones that are are doing it because there's apathy within their rank and file and the people who get involved in leadership are getting involved in leadership to get into a position of power. They're doing it for the wrong reasons. My mother-in-law and people are allowing that. Yeah, and people are letting it happen through their apathy.

Through their apathy. My mother-in-law, her last teaching job, before she retired, she was in a school in the East Bay. And their union was literally worse than useless. Like the stories that she tells me about the level of corruption involved in their union being in the hip pocket of administration are just grotesque. And of course in her case she was five years away from planning on retiring or however long it was. So just sit it out. Yeah. Put up with it. But the other, but all of the other or however one wants to sit it out. So just sit it down, put up with it. But all of the other members of that unit, just this is a CTA affiliated union.

This is the same as every unit I've been part of. And you have, and the thing is, no, you have to elect people who aren't going to do that. As long as you don't show up for your union election, it's just like any other democratic system. If you don't show up, then the other side's going to fucking win. Well, and honestly, Poolslaw of Iron Brearkercy literally

was, was a critique of unions. Teachers union specifically, because you did have that apathy. And you did have that disengagement that allowed it to happen, allowed the aporetics, aporetics. Aporetics. Those guys to take over and just use it to serve their own needs.

Now, so again, we get, there is, it's a similar flavor of that disaffection that is well, you know, there's there's no point in you know Showing up and voting for you know like you know every the last presidential election most recent one Record turnouts but how many people were Still gripping and moaning prior to the general election about the fact that, well, all of a sudden, Joe Biden started gaining more and more and more and more

momentum and everybody was like, well, obviously this is just, you know, the democratic party is, you know, the fix is in, it's gonna be Joe and like, you know, and all this, all this, like. I'll even accept that all of that is true just to make the following point. Yeah.

What else are you gonna do then? Like, if that does end up being the choice, you wanna disengage still and, and put at risk our most marginalized communities. Yeah. Oh, right, because you think a revolution is gonna happen. Well, yeah, because, because revolution. Right.

And, and the thing is, it's like, no, here's the deal, show up to your fucking primary. Yeah. Show up to your fucking primary and vote for somebody who has a chance of fucking winning. Well, and again, I would. Actually engage with other voters anyway. I would also point out that like plenty of people

did show up to the primary. Yeah. They absolutely did. And I do think that the system is rotting from within. I absolutely think so. So unless you're willing to kill 20% of the most marginalized people because they will be targeted, then reform it from within, gang people to the left as hard as you can. So now the mobilization that we saw in the 30s, however, things were

very dire and this was nascent and brutalization of politics was a new thing. And the mobilization was actually happening on a massive level, you remember the bonus marchers. And so the mobilization was also aided by several unions in the area as well as communist leadership in the area because this is still the early 1930s. The plan was to march the Ford River Rouge factory.

My mom explained to me that's the Rouge River and not the Rogue River. Present 14 demands to Henry Ford and then go from there. And this was a march that was supposed to go from Detroit to Dearborn, which is about a nine mile distance. Okay, so here is the list of demands. Quote, jobs for all laid off Ford for workers immediate payment of 50% of full wages

seven-hour day seven-hour days without reduction in pay slowing down of the deadly speed up two 15-minute rest periods no discrimination against Negroes and jobs This is their terms not mine, but I know how progressive is that very much so. Well, consider that's the killer with Henry Ford though. Well, yes and no. He was one of the first people to hire black people in mass numbers. He's part of the reason that the great migration northward happened in the first place. Yeah, I don't want to credit him. This was yeah, well, yeah, black folks getting the fuck out. Yeah, I don't wanna credit him. This was black folks getting the fuck out.

Yeah, but relief, like literally just one word was a demand. Medical service, free medoclade in the Ford hospital for employed and unemployed Ford workers and families. Oh wow, just kind of like Cobra. Five tons of coal and coke for the winter. Okay. Abolition of service men, that's Harry Bennett's people. No foreclosures on homes of Ford workers.

Immediate payment of lump sum of $50 for winter relief. Okay. $50 back then was obviously more. I'm not a lot of money. I didn't actually, there's other places where I actually used a converter. Yeah, a converter, but I didn't hear. Full wages for part-time workers, abolition of the graft

system of hiring, and the right to organize. OK, so the killer is going to be 14. No, well, thankfully Ford came out, listened to everyone and agreed on the spot. I don't know why the following was called the Ford Massacre. It's just weird. Yeah. Okay. Here's here's what really happened. Yeah. The mayor of Dearborn was Ford's cousin, a guy named Clyde Ford. Yeah. Well, okay. You're in trouble right there. In Detroit, where it was incredibly cold, nothing was really a problem.

The march got started without a hitch. So it was a very cold morning. There was somewhere between three to five thousand marchers, but once they got to the border of the town of Dearborn, which is a suburb of Detroit. The police force of Dearborn greeted them there with tear gas, batons, and gunshots. The marchers threw stones and clumps of frozen mud. The marchers threw stones and clumps of frozen mud. Okay. The police retreated and then regrouped and repeated their attack. And this time with two fire trucks spraying cold water at the marchers. The response was the same.

Yeah. At the Ford River Rouge complex, the police were then reinforced by the Dearborn Fire Department who had lent out the... Yeah. Also the Detroit police came in and Ford Service Department led by Harry Bennett. Harry Bennett. They began firing into the crowd and they killed Joe York, a 19 year old district leader of the Young Communist League. They also killed Coleman Lenny, Joe DeBlasio, and they wounded 50 more. The leaders of the march including the unemployed council leader Alfred Gates, G-O-E-T-Z, I think

this pronounced Gates. By the way, there's an unemployed, yeah we're against. G-O-E is gets. Okay, gets. The unemployed council, I just love that even they organize, right? He tried to lead an orderly retreat, and at this point, Ford's service department opened fire with a machine gun. Harry Bennett drove up in a car, rolled down the window, and began to fire his pistol into the crowd. Once he'd emptied the clip,

he grabbed the revolver from a police officer and unloaded that one too. This killed a 16-year-old young communist leaker named Joe Bussell, making him the fourth and final fatality of the day. One of the few bright spots was that Bennett was injured by a rock for his troubles and he got hospitalized. 25 police were also injured by thrown items, none were injured by gunfire. So clearly there's equal amounts of violence and evil on both sides. Oh yeah, no, they're fine equal amounts of violence and evil on both sides.

Oh yeah, no, they're fine people. Yes, fine people on both sides. Forty-eight workers and protesters were arrested, somewhere arrested in their fucking hospital beds, after they were chained to them. Now following that, Ford fired hundreds more if they were found to have even just left-wing literature or to have donated to the funerals of the four who were murdered by Bennett and the police. If you were in the Communist Party, you were automatically arrested. The brother of the slain child, Joe, his name was Ben Bussell and he said at his brother's funeral, quote, in the name of my murdered brother, I call upon you to organize and fight, long live the workers of the world.

80,000 people joined the march to the cemetery. Now in June, so that was, what did I say February? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you, said February. Okay. Yeah, I forgot to write down that date It was cold as shit though, but in June one of the black workers and marchers Curtis Williams finally died of his wounds from that march And while the Michigan was definitely on the side of the Union during the Civil War

That doesn't mean that they weren't racist as hell and as such their segregation policies kept Williams from being buried with his fellow marchers. He was then cremated and his ashes were scattered at that cemetery, although there's some rumors persist that his ashes were scattered over the River Rouge plant instead in an active defiance. The workers who'd been arrested avoided sentences from a grand jury, but they were indicted and tried. A guy named Mori's sugar, which great name, was the attorney who defended them, and he actually managed them to get found not guilty by the grand jury. And he said that the police brutality was way out of proportion, and that such brutality grows quote, out of the institution of private property under which one class in society lives in luxury at the expense of the great massive workers

Who are compelled to live in a state of poverty, regidness and despair? Oh, wow. Yeah, he said that at the trial pretty firebrand language Yeah, none of the police the fire department or the service department were ever indicted for the massacre Now there was a manhunt for a guy named William Foster who was one of the main organizers of this march But eventually that lost steam and he wasn't arrested Meanwhile the Detroit Times was incredibly responsible and made sure to verify all their facts before publication That's a crack of shit. Yeah, I'm lying. They actually published whatever false police reports that made their way to the newspaper including the fact that the false report

that Harry Bennett and four policemen were shot. Quote, six shots fired by a communist, oh, let me do this in 1930s voice, six shots fired by a communist hiding behind a park car. We're sighted by the police on Monday night as the match which touched off a ride at the Ford Motor Company plant. Yeah.

The Detroit Free Press also wanted in on the action So I touched off a ride at the Ford Motor Company plant. Yeah. The Detroit Free Press also wanted in on the action and they ran headlines that said quote, or stories that said quote, these professional communist alone are morally guilty of the assaults and killings which took place before the Ford plant. Okay, back up and without doing the fakie mid Atlantic accent.

Read that one to me again. These professional communists alone are morally guilty of the assaults and killings which took place before the Ford plan. Professional communists. Paid demonstrators. Yeah, I don't see. Like, I'm just glad we learned from this.

That's never happened again. Like, Ken, Ken, Ken can the right get some new ideas? Maybe like at least pick new insults? No, like okay. And okay, so here's the thing. You're talking about this specific incident. One more headline. The mirror had a headline that said,

red leaders facing murder trials. Okay, now go on. So I don't understand how it is, why it is that the moneyed property classes of society who have the money and the property and the property to to pay for have always had resources to pay for a meaningful education. Yes. How it is that they can consistently be so thoroughly ignorant of the arc of history.

And the reason I ask this question is because you're talking about the Dearborn Police Department and the police department of police department and fire department of, or the fire department is also Dear born. And then the Detroit police department. And then, and this is this is the part that that we hit that caused the historical eco-forming, the the private security of the Ford Motor Company, showing up and Yes. Showing up an inflicting violence on a group of protesters. Yes.

Immediately put me in mind of the Peter Lu massacre in August of 1819, which is British history. Okay. So it's not going to be immediately something that's gonna Right, right, right, but being a Napoleonic era and post-Napoleonic era nerd like I am The Peter Lou Massacre is a big deal because it was Working-class people Engaging in essentially a mass action mass protest. Sure Who were set upon

by a private Cav regiment. Wow. Who murdered? So literally rightist paramilitary people? Yes. Who murdered 18 people in injured, depending on what source you go by, somewhere between 400 to 700 people were injured because they had become convinced that these were a bunch of ad revolutionaries and etc. and they rode in with cavalry sabers and murdered unarmed women and children and still didn't manage to stop parliamentary reform from fucking happening. Right. So now, it's like, like they lost. I mean, in long term, they lost. Long term, they've always lost. Futalism Yes. The rule of the God kings of Babylonia or Babylon, fell apart, surfed them in Russia, eventually fell apart. Right.

On the way toward falling apart, the people in charge of that system have always fought to hang on. And clawed to hang on to it. Like, you know, it'd be a lot less likely to wind up on the receiving end of a mechanical execution machine. If you were smart enough to read a history book and go, you know what? I've heard this tune before. I've heard this tune before.

Maybe I'm going to figure out a way to change the chord progression slightly. So maybe I'm not able to take a shit in a gold-plated toilet anymore. Silver will do. Silver will do, and I can land a little more softly and not wind up being pilloried in the annals animal history. Sure. Like after him, dad. Yeah, that doesn't happen.

Torn apart by the crowd. Doesn't happen. But what? I know that doesn't happen. I'm trying to figure out why that doesn't happen. Because you got to keep in mind, this is not something that occurs in a single generation to build this up. It's true.

These people are born into a system that has always been this way as far as they've known. And their own exceptionalism will keep them going through it. So even though times look bad now, this is a bling. If we can just break them. Yeah. Now it turns out back then, if you were rich and in charge of an industry in some capacity, then you could get whatever missing information you wanted printed in the newspaper to destabilize the public's belief in what was true. Luckily, we've gotten a lot more concerning since the advent of social media.

Back then. Yeah, right. Back then we were able to do that. Now with social media, that's impossible. Oh, yeah. There's certainly no way that like state actors could get involved in no, you know, destabilizing other other democratic systems or other governmental systems or, you know, seeding misinformation. No, never have. Um, now, there, okay. Anyway. So they're, however, at that time there still were some officials who actually took their job seriously. The Mayor of Detroit, a guy named Frank Murphy, criticized Ford and Bennett and how people were arrested in their hospital beds, which that that's noteworthy shows us

how far that bar dropped. He said that the only difference between Dearborn Police and Ford Service Department men was quote, a legalistic one. Pretty much. Yeah, I think it would be interesting to also note what the demographics were of who voted in Dearborn and who voted in Detroit.

Well, yeah, you have a lot more black folks actually getting to use the vote, whereas Dearborn was kept white. Oh, yeah. There's a mayor who's not mayor yet because it's Ford's cousin, but a mayor throughout my mom's entire life, Orville Hubbard. You can look him up. He is the dictator of Dearborn.

He's called that because there was, I think, a time-life magazine article about the four most authoritarian- Local government officials in the country. There was a Hitler of Hoboken, the dictator of Dearborn, and then there were two others that were also clever. Yes. Hoboken. Yes. You got to keep in mind back then, using the name Hitler was not an immediate invoking the Holocaust because people are trying to forget it. Yeah, no I understand.

Yeah, so yeah. But he literally ran on a keep deer born clean thing. And he went down to talk to the mayors of, yeah. Oh yeah. Here's your dog whistle breakdown. Yep. Wow. He went down to the South to talk to the mayors of Alabama. And he's like, we do it so much better than you guys.

Like, you have all this violence and stuff. We don't have that. Like a black family moves in, they get visited by the police around the clock until they leave. Like he was bragging about his shit. Yeah, orville Hubbard, real piece of shit. So a friend of the mayors who actually served on the grand jury that found no reason to arrest or indict anyone

from the non-protester or demonstrator side said in his own dissent. So he's a member of the jury, but he's a person who said that the jury was quote, the most biased prejudice and ignorant proceeding imaginable. Yeah, he was coming from inside the room too. Wow. Now, luckily for all involved, this was the end of all of it. There's no violence ever done again

and the demonstrators at the Ford plant. You know, the trick stops working after you do it two or three times. So it's fast forward to making 37 then. So there was a newspaper that described the Ford Service Department as the largest private quasi-military organization in the world. I would just like to point out that unspricing Eric Prince and his sister Betsy Prince, who married into the divorce family, who came from Amway money, which got its start in Michigan.

No shit. I did not know that Amway was a Michigan thing. Yeah. It's okay. Yeah. So, from the generational wealth is not just a southern thing. No. Okay. So, from 1935 to 1937, there were hundreds of sit-down strikes. There were a bunch of unions bolstered by the Wagner Act in 1935. They also called, it was also called the National Labor Relations Act, and it's federally legitimizing

impact on unions, a bunch of unions, one recognition. There was a 44-day General Motors plant occupation in Flint, Michigan. This is one of my favorite strikes because the women were so universally important to it. They broke the windows so that the tear gas would flow back out. They, oh yeah, the UAW got recognized there as well. Yeah. Much of it due to the women. Without their efforts, the strike would have been broken. There was a 31-day strike at Chrysler, with those as well as smaller companies along the way, the UAW swelled to 400,000

members. Now, at this point, the new deal is taking effect and money is starting to flow in and unions are starting to grow with it. For really, the first time, it's got federal backing. You had the Wagner Act. Now, still Ford Motors was not a union shop for the rent. Reasons that I mentioned previously, you remember how Ford made sure that he was a sole owner. Yeah.

And hand-built distribution was actually illegal in Dearborn. You couldn't distribute hand-bills. Again, when your cousins, the new ones, it's empty. Still, the UAW acted, actually got a permit from the Dearborn city government to distribute leaflets on May 26, 1937. The leaflets said, unionism not Fordism. Oh, wow. Fordism was the road simplicity of the assembly line, which was accelerated week by week and had strict rules about the conduct on the line if you sat down you were fired if you talked you were fired

So unionism not Fordism. So the UAW's women's auxiliary were going to distribute the leaflets on the overpass the women's auxiliary This overpass crossed Miller Road The this was the overpass that workers at Ford favored for entering the plant. So mostly came over this. This location was also a little more than just a frozen sod throw away from the site of the massacre five years earlier. The women were joined by sympathetic clergy, a clutch of reporters, as well as an advanced team of UAW officials. Okay. At 2 p.m., leaders of the UAW were asked to pose a top-the-over pass by a Detroit

news photographer named James Killpatrick. While they were arranging the shot, Harry Bennett and the service department attacked them from behind. Local 174's president, Walter Reuter, Reuter, our EU THER. Reuter. Reuter. Um, he was dragged by his feet down two flights of iron stairs. Now, if you're dragging someone by their feet,

I don't know if you read your AA mail, but you know what goes bump, did he bump? Did he bump? Did he bump? Yes. So he gets dragged and body slammed repeatedly to the pavement. He's later quoted as saying, quote, seven times they raised me off the concrete and slammed me down on it. They pinned my arms and I was punched and kicked and dragged by my feet to the stairway, thrown down

the first flight of steps, picked up, slammed down on the platform, and kicked down the second flight. On the ground, they beat me and kicked me some more. Bob Cantor and Tony Morinovich were thrown off the top of the overpass to the street 30 feet below. Morinovich suffered a brain injury. Richard Frankenstein, not Frankenstein. He was held and repeatedly chone-shot it. Jesus. And William Maryweather had his back broken due to his beating. Now while this is going on, the women's auxiliary came by streetcar with arms full of leaflets. Their purpose for being there, the thing for which they had a permit. Catherine Babe Gels, I love you so much.

The commander of the auxiliary who patterned this one after what the women's auxiliary had done for the GM strike, she dove in to stop three men from beating on a union man. She, along with many other women, were beaten for their troubles. All told, there was 60 injured and one who died later from his injuries, a guy named JJ Kennedy. Boy, it's a remarkable that the guys thrown off the fucking overpass were killed, right? I mean, my god. Yeah, it's quite something. Now, the photographers and the reporters also beaten, cameras were destroyed in a concerted effort to hide what had happened Because when you're on the side of right you want to make sure no one sees your right

action, yeah, of course, which is what made someone who's This is what I think you would do if you were absolutely consider you know thinking you were right So you know Harry Bennett clearly very clear more compass. Okay They So Harry Bennett clearly, very clear moral compass. They... They... Neutral evil. Solidly like, I know what I'm doing is morally wrong. I don't care.

Yeah, he is. He is going to make sure I don't get caught. Biosmosis, right? And to do so, they made reporters, and I mean made reporters, surrender their photo plates. It's an old-timey photo things, right? Luckily for the truth, Kill Patrick hid his behind the seat of a car and surrendered the plates that he had on the front seat. Another one threw his camera into a waiting car that then sped away. Nice. Yes. Now as a result of these photographers' efforts, the newspapers had pictures to show what had

happened. Ford had to respond instead of just pretending it was all fine and you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So he pulled his advertisements from Time Magazine when they ran the story. Because you know, when you have the money to do that, that's going to be your response. Right. He also tried to do that, that's going to be your response. Right. He also tried to distance himself, uh, by saying that, quote, loyal Ford employees, quote, were the culprits. They're just, they're just, you know, they love me so much.

Right. They, they, they, they go overboard. Absolutely. But, you know, they're just, they're just defending their dad. Yeah. But to be fair, the violence is clearly the fault of the protesters. Quote, the affair was deliberately provoked by union officials. They simply wanted to trump up charge of Ford brutality.

I definitely, I know definitely no Ford service man or plant police were involved in any way in the fight. Um, I'm sorry, wait, okay, hold on, hold on. Mr. Ford, can I call you Hank? Sure. This wasn't a fight like no part of the story involves anybody on the union side with like table legs or brick bats or baseball bats or pitchforks, or torches, which by the way, I'd be watching out your window at night. From which estate? All of them. But this fight involves two people throwing punches.

I also want to just go back real quick. This is like, I'd be watching out your window when you are building a fortress. At one point, do you have to admit to yourself on some level that you're the baddies. Are you the baddies? But why are they skulls? Here's the thing, if you have convinced yourself, again, it's zero sum. It's me or them. Well, one, there's a bunch of factors. There's the zero sum. It's me or them.

Number one, number two, if and you got to it, when I asked about, you know, why don't they see the pattern is, you know, well, you know, this is the system. This is the way it is. And it is literally a sense of entitlement. I am entitled to tell these people how to work. I am entitled because I am the one giving them a job. Right. You know, and the thing of it is, from the point of view of anybody on the union thug side

of the equation, like you were me, you wouldn't have a business without these people. Right. You would not have the mansion that you're having to fortify. These people wouldn't have a job without you. These people wouldn't have a job. They should be grateful for their food. They should be grateful. And like, I've worked for people like this on a much smaller scale.

I work for one like this now. Yeah, granted. But he's not sending thugs to beat me down. Yeah. No, he's not. No, he's not. Don't get me wrong. He would like to.

There are parents who are united to restore Serfdom. And if he could get away with it, he would. Maybe. I think the threshold for violence is very different now. Honestly. All right, granted. But. But I also say that it is a tremendous amount of violence

to try to get somebody fired from their job for speaking their mind. Yeah, number one. Yeah. Number two, you know, the remarkable thing here is the blatant, I don't even know what word to use of it, of saying, well, you know, this was clearly meant to provoke, you know, a response like, victim blaming.

Yeah, well, it's it's it's painting yourself as the victim of the thing that you're about to do. You're telling on yourself. Well, one, it's telling on yourself, but like even, even in an era when the threshold of violence was lower, it beggars my, my understanding of how logic works for the

stated response to be, well, you know, this was all just meant to provoke. So you had to immediately go for grabbing a dude and flinging him off of an overpass. Like there wasn't any, hey, GTFO. There wasn't any, we don't want you doing this here on our property, even though it's public property, whatever, but there was no, it was just, no, no, we just walked up and started murdering him. Yeah.

And like, well, they were picking a fight. No, they weren't. Right, yeah. But anyway and started murdering him. Yeah. And like, well, you know, they were picking a fight. No, they weren't. Right. But anyway, outside agitators. Outside agitators. So what I love about the quote where he says, again, quote, the affair was deliberately provoked by union officials. They simply wanted to trump up a charge of Ford brutality.

I know definitely no Ford service man or plant police were involved in any way in the fight. That is an obvious contradiction. Yeah. But also he speaks of the service department and the internal plant police, as though that's a normal thing. Like just it's there.

It always had been. Right. Yeah. Also that the police chief on the scene for the the Dearborn Police, a man named Carl Brooks, had come from the service department under Bennett and gave no orders to intervene. Revolving door. Yeah, well. Through all of these brutalizations and given the personalities of those in charge, it's

easy to see how Ford Motor Company was kept from unionizing until 1941. Interestingly, they did unionize prior to the war. In April of 1941, after eight Ford employees were fired for joining the UAW, because you could do that back then, the entire labor force walked out as part of a wildcat strike. Oh, damn! And they blockaded the whole plant in a sit-down strike, labor force walked out as part of a wildcat strike. Oh damn. And they blockaded the whole plant in a sit-down strike and it was a 10-day strike. Wow.

Now, during this strike, attacks on scabs were pretty common. As was the UAW's Women's Auxiliary Sandwich Efforts, again taking a page out of the GM Strikes book. Yeah. Now, I'm not a big fan of beating a page out of the GM strikes book. Now, I'm not a big, big fan of beating a shit out of people. At the same time, if you're going to scab, it's, you remember when I talked about you can have it come in, but not to serve it. That's it. Yeah. You don't deserve to get your ass kicked, but you certainly have an ass kick in coming. You have an ass kick on its way. Because even though what you're doing is not directly violent,

you are doing a violence to these people's families. Yeah. But what I find especially telling is that even then, there were signs on the picket line that said, quote, fast pals, Ford and Hitler. There were signs that had a swat stick with Ford's name above it and Hitler's name below it and my favorite quote Why did Ford get a Nazi medal?

Yeah, more on that in a bit a few employees stayed inside and got paid a dollar an hour despite no work getting done And Ford also paid strike bakers who had a tough time getting past the picket lines no doubt a dollar an hour Ford didn't want to give in and was very close to just dissolving his company. Yeah, rather than capitulate. I didn't realize that was the direction he was wow. Yeah, I mean, can you can you imagine? Again, when you make it zero sum, if I lose I die. Yeah, I would rather destroy this thing than let them have it. Wow. It's that shit. This isn't even burning the village to save the village. This is just

burning the village. Yeah. This is well, I can't play with this. I'm breaking it. Yeah, taking your sacks of cash. Yeah. Wow. But his wife actually threatened to divorce him if he sold the family business. So because the kids, yeah. Because the kid, only one kid. Oh, kid, yeah. But he turned around and agreed to make for a closed shop. So again, dude goes from most virulent anti

to suddenly, okay, we'll do a closed shop then, which is the most pro union thing you can do. Yeah. A closed shop is anybody who works there has to be. It has to be union, but it's also the most predictable. That's a good point. That's a really good point. Now you don't have to have two sets of books.

You don't have to have two sets of books. You don't have to worry about like, okay, if I'm going to allow the union to be here, I don't want to have to deal with. I can just do one set of math for pay. Yeah, you're absolutely right. And I want to eliminate every source of friction within my machine that I can. And the friction between non-union and union workers

is gonna be a source of friction. It's gonna get the way. And that's gonna get the way. And that's gonna get the way. That's right. All right, fine, if I got to do it, I'm going to go the whole way. But again, you remember, he started by paying more than anyone else was. And he's doing it again. He is going further than what's demanded. They didn't demand a closed shop. And he's

like, yep, okay, we're going to go a closed shop. But I think you're absolutely right. That helps the machine run better. Yeah. And so it seems to have been a no-sara grape policy as well, if not in person. So speaking of in person, he actually made Harry Bennett be the one who signed the agreement to let Ford's workers join the UAW. Ford saw, I know. I know. Do you really wanna start feeding your wolf-hound human parts? Like, like, so. I don't know, I'd be genuinely worried about I created the sociopath and now I'm going to humiliate him. Right, but at the same time, he's following my orders.

There's that aspect and he's the fixer. So and again that takes me back to I think Harry Bennett in so many ways started off neutral neutral. And now he's now he's yeah. Nutri-level. Now Ford saw this whole thing as a chance to hurt GM and a chance to hurt Wall Street and as a way to actually co-opt the UAW. If I swing all the way this way, you know, and he even said this to the president of the UAW. Well, because he likes co-opting shit. You remember the pacifists in World War I, the Detroit co-opt? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I understand.

I, you know, I wonder if his success had by this time gone to his head. Like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna hurt, like, obviously, I want to hurt my financial business rivals. Like, obviously, I want to damage GM. I want to do what I can to hurt Chrysler. Right, right. Like, those guys, fuck those guys, obviously. But also, this keeps him as the daddy on some level. Yeah, this is well, yeah. But like I don't think he fundamentally understood what the creature was that he was dealing with.

Dealing with? Yeah, you're absolutely right. I, you know, there's such an undercurrent of hubris going on with everything this guy is doing. Oh, yeah, yeah. It's remarkable. Well, yeah. Yeah. It's remarkable. Well, the amount of energy he's putting into psychological self-preservation.

Okay, that makes sense. Yeah, it's absolutely that. I didn't lose. Right, exactly. This is all, this is all, this is all a long game. I chose, I chose, I looked at the field, things have changed. I chose this and now we're going to go forward.

Yeah. A man decides. Right. You know, I don't need to apologize because I'm moving forward. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of that. So that's where I want to clip it here because then we're going to shift into some of his philosophies.

Some of those signs will come up in the next week's episode. So having covered all that per the usual, what if you're clean? It is I think really important that as social studies teachers, we need to find a way like in high school level, American history. It winds up getting taught so often as this bloodless, well, not bloodless. What's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what's what bloodless. What's what's what's what are you saying? Ties well sanitized but like on the one hand, you know World War one World War two take up a huge chunk of the time

We don't Normally cover the in-between spot other than there's a huge economic collapse and then and then and then St. FDR came in Yeah, you know, there's there's the inter war period doesn't doesn't get covered right and then post-war right Development and everything, you know gets it because the Cold War gets line share the yeah, and and the thing is like It's important especially now that we're moving away from the Cold War with ever greater distance between us and it. It's important for people to understand, for students to understand about the Cold War and how it shaped everything. That's important, but what's also important, I think, is an understanding of how it was that we went up in the position we were in at

the beginning of World War II. And in order to understand that, you have to talk about American industrialization. You have to talk about the relationship between capital and labor. And that is like the moment those words come out of my mouth, even my knee jerk reaction is, oh, fucking hell. Really? Like, that's like economics. No, no, motherfucker, it's not economics. It's human rights.

It is civil rights. It is civil rights. It is the understanding that this is literally blood-sweating tears. And again, I would hope that if I'm teaching students in an under-privileged area, that my students would come away understanding, well, okay, our best bet for making our world better is solidarity and democratic principles and like getting out and fucking participating show that up.

Right. And I would hope that if I'm teaching in a more affluent part of town, that the lesson would be, don't wind up on the receiving end of a fucking guillotine. Yeah. Like, like don't make these mistakes. Yes, these are long, these are long historical arcs, but understand, like here are the signs to look for when you are in

Fendicycle. Yeah. Like, and figure out how to get a softer landing for yourself by not being a massive big bag. Well, I mean, you just point to the Romanovs. Yes, they lasted for 12 zars. Six of them were assassinated. Yes.

At no point were they exceptional enough to avoid that. Yeah, and also, let's like we can go even further back. Let's look at what was the year of eight emperors, six emperors. Oh, and Rome? Yeah. The year of four emperors. Well, there was the year of four,

there was at least one year of six. Because I've looked this up for my seventh graders. Yeah, you're talking toward the end of the empire. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Where there's some question is to whether Romulus Augustus is the last one or Julius Neposes? Well, one, but even before that, it was like,

the first guy gets assassinated and then two months later, the guy that the his adopted son assassinated, the guy who killed him and he becomes emperor. And then it's like everybody's adopted nephews the his adopted son assassinated the guy who killed him and he becomes emperor and then it's like everybody's adopted nephews are like killing each other like all year. Yeah. Like, stable. Yeah, so stable, obviously.

Cool. But yeah. Well, what you're reading? What am I reading? Oh, man, I had a really great idea for this. Oh, I am going to recommend, and this is going to sound really weird, but this is kind of inspired by stuff outside of the recording this evening. I'm going to very strongly recommend everybody look up Richard cheese.

Oh yeah, dick cheese. Yeah, and lounge against the machine. Yes. Um, largely, largely because of a conversation online that involved the phrase, uh, darn it. Oh man, now I forgot, but it was, it was plays on rage against the machine. After somebody, you know, made the remark of, you re-listen to rage against the machine. It was just so angry and obviously communist and like, dude, what's wrong with this? And like, imagine how much Florence must hurt with all this rage directed into her. So yeah, just because of that, check out Richard Cheese, lounge against the machine.

It's an awful lot of fun, and might help deal with the toxicity of modern life. Sure. So how about you? I'm gonna recommend three different books, but they're all on the same topic. The first one, Henry Ford, my life and work. Okay.

His autobiography. So really interesting stuff. He is somewhat introspective in there. Okay. Does he go all the way? Of course not. No, well, no. But he has more self-awareness. Self-preservation.

Yes. Yes. But you're between lines and there's some good stuff in there. And there are times where he absolutely fully admits his fault. And he's like, I should have done this earlier. Okay. The next one is who was Henry Ford? It's one of those little kids series Oh, okay. by Michael Bergen.

Okay. But then the third one is The People's Tycoon, Henry Ford in the American Century by Stephen Watts. Okay. I think these three are really good set of companion pieces because you see how he saw himself. You see the propaganda we give to kids and then you see an actual historian studying this. Okay.

So I would say those three things. Okay, very cool. Yeah. So where can people find you social media wise? I can be found on TikTok at Mr. underscore play lock. I can be found on Twitter at ehplaylock. And we collectively can be found at Geek History Time on Twitter. And our website, of course, is www.GeekHistoryTime.com.

And you've already found our podcast, of course, but if you wanna direct anybody else to it, we are on Stitcher and we are on the Apple podcast app and of course episodes can be downloaded directly from the website. Now where are they going to find you? Mr. Everywhere at once. You could find me at Doha Harmony, two ages in the middle, on the Twitter and the Insta and you could find me at Doh Harmony 1 on TikTok. I've got several puns on there, but to be fair, with the strike and everything,

I've kind of fallen off, so I need to start recording some more content. Don't feel like you need to hurry. Yeah, but yeah, that's where you can find me. Again, find us on the Apple app, you've already found us, but find us on the Apple app, find us on Stitcher. Please rate, subscribe, review, all that good stuff, give us five stars, you know, we earned. If you don't like it,

then you know, just keep that to yourself. It's okay. Yeah, that's fine. Okay, that's fine. This, you know what, this is a relationship and thank you for the attempt. There you go. You know, that's fine. So for a geek history of time, I'm Damien Harmon. And I'm Ed Blalock, and until next time, keep rolling 20s. of time. I'm Damien Harmon. And I'm Ed Blalock. And until next time, keep rolling 20s.