I came across this while reading the book NeoDB Book | Life After Cars by by Sarah Goodyear, Doug Gordon, and Aaron Naparstek. Found it interesting as this is a guy that a lot of car enjoyers look up to.
From the book: “Henry Ford was, of course, the man most responsible for inaugurating mass production of the automobile—the man who refined the car as the ultimate expression of American consumer culture. He was also a man who had some exceptionally repellent ideas about “bloodlines.” As Jonathan Greenblatt of the Anti-Defamation League said on Twitter at the time of Trump’s remarks, “Henry Ford was an antisemite and one of America’s staunchest proponents of eugenics”
The book is great ! Would recommend. This is from a chapter called “Power Likes Horsepower”, which explores the deep political and cultural ties between cars, power, and extremist ideologies in the U.S. and beyond. It traces how figures like Henry Ford used the automotive industry to promote divisive, often racist and anti-Semitic beliefs, and how modern politicians- like Donald Trump and JD Vance - continue to weaponize car-related rhetoric to fuel culture wars, resist climate action, and stoke fear over policies like electric vehicles or urban planning.
Hate people in this comments section defending Ford by arguing “balance” fuck you he was a union busting white supremacist who fought hard to maintain his privilege when a hell of a lot people knew he was wrong, hardly see this point of needing “balance” and not critiquing someone brought up for someone like Hitler and his children’s allowance no we rightly point to its twisted motives and the positives people are sharing about Ford are all the same such as being willing to employ black people as strike breakers and keeping his workforce in at least basic health. Stop this nonsense please.
I thought of this, too. My knee-jerk reaction was “you’re just learning this?” but then I remembered the 10,000. Thank you xkcd for making the world a better place, even if it’s only by helping me be a (slightly) better person.
Same and same.
One of my favorite, and most quoted XKCD! Makes learning exciting!
Yeah, this is true he hated Jews and was a Union basher. He also employed blacks at equal pay when no one else would, popularized the weekend and leisure, supported education and healthcare, preserved history, and was the advent of vertical integration which arguably helped win WW1 and WW2.
I’m not saying he was a good dude, but history is history.
He also promoted teaching square dancing in schools to preserve the white culture that the Jews were somehow getting the blacks to destroy with jazz.
As a Detroiter who went to elementary school in the early 90’s, his legacy lived on. I remember learning to square dance in school. I HATED it.
I had to learn it in southern Virginia.
The same Virginia that at the time celebrated Lee Jackson King day.
Isn’t that where Square dancing thrives? The white south?
Not where I was. Only ever saw square dancing in elementary school.
Probably important to point out that he only used black employees to help bust unions and strike movements. Course if those unions weren’t so fucking racist it wouldn’t have worked. Kind of a mixed bag. Just goes to show that class solidarity is the only thing that matters.
Basic carrot and stick manipulation with a dash of divide and conquer.
Ford’s German plants made tanks for Germany so anything they did on the american side is moot.
Thanks for giving a more balanced perspective.
If you want to know more about a REAL bad man, look into Harry Bennett. Bennett was Ford’s right hand man. He was going to give the company to Bennett, but Ford’s wife convinced him to give it to Edsel Ford, his son, even though he didn’t want to. He was essentially a mobster and criminal.
The automotive industry, which I currently work in, is full of a rich history of back door meetings and under the table deals. Hell, I live down the road from Jimmy Hoffa’s house. It’s all VERY interesting stuff.
Yes, and Hitler loved art, dogs, and his own mother. See where I’m going with this?
I see that you are upset. I’m not sure why.
He was revolutionary in that he saw all people as equal slaves that could serve him. A true man of the people… The Jew hating ones at least…
Woah. It’s almost as if people are complex creatures of opinions that aren’t mutually exclusive.
Fucking crazy
Why are you acting like this?
Most car manufacturers have ties to fascists. The German and Japanese brands collaborated with their fascist governments during WWII, Volkswagen was in some sense created by Hitler, and now we have musk running Tesla.
Automakers literally made tanks during the world wars. Ford existed in USA & Germany during the 30s/40s
He printed and distributed the Tsarist-era antisemitic forgery Protocols of the Elders of Zion in the US, as well as a book of his own writing titled The International Jew.
If you had square dancing at your school in gym class, it was also because of Ford’s antisemitism. He thought jazz had been invented by Jews to destroy the morality of white people so helped spread square dancing as a weapon to keep jazz music and away from white children.
Damn… had to look it up, apparently it’s true. Unbelievable what ideas their minds back-flip into.
Yep, in elementary school. Gah! We were just kids. Also love jazz to this day and beyond. Haven’t had interest in square dancing since childhood.
Education system in The USA has been falling a part, it was not good enough, from beginning.
Turns out, white people didn’t need any help destroying their own morality. They did it plenty themselves.
Smoke Weed Play Jazz
Egads! Apparently Hitler wasn’t the nicest guy, too. And I think that Trump guy might be up to no good.
Seriously now?
I’m shocked :D
Hitler had a painting of Heinrich Ford in his office. Facetiously speaking, calling Ford an antisemitic is a euphemism.
Wait until ya hear about Mercedes and Mitsubishi
And Porsche
Volkswagen. Hugo Boss. Adidas.
Ford manufacturered turbines for the V-2 rockets as well.
History is important. And many may not be aware of Ford’s associations with Hitler and Nazi-ism.
Yep. And the car cult is still run by fascists to this very day.
he was famously very close to hitler, yeah.
Yes, this is true, I found this out through ‘Free Speech’ programming
This connection is well known. American auto makers had a close working relationship with the German nazis. Hitler created the autobahn, and then americans copied this nazi idea in the nterstate highway system, which was primarily designed to destroy black and other minority neighborhoods by running directly through them. Automobiles are an inherently nazi invention.
Automobiles are an inherently nazi invention.
The first automobile was invented in 1649…
In 1649, Hans Hautsch of Nuremberg built a clockwork-driven carriage.
carriage
Hmmmmmm that sounds like a different word. Not an automobile.
The modern car as we understand it began during the lifetime of henry ford. Every invention has precursors. Ideas always come from somewhere. Mentioning the first precursor invention does not negate my point.
