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.