• @[email protected]
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    969 months ago

    Edison, Vanderbilt, Carnegie, Rockerfeller…

    Same shit back then. Careful of the rose colored glasses.

    • Chaotic Entropy
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      99 months ago

      Yeah… a lot of people are venerated posthumously, whereas others can afford to pay to be venerated in their own time.

      • deweydecibel
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        9 months ago

        And that financial industry bled into the other industries, and started stealing the credit.

        Musk is a good example. The perfect one, really. True engineers and scientists could be the figureheads of those companies, but when you think Space X, you think of that wart of a human being.

        Edison was a shithead with his company and his money, but he was still the genuine article when it came to engineering. More than can be said for Musk.

  • HobbitFoot
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    449 months ago

    A lot of scientific pioneers in the 19th century were rich men who could afford the equipment to conduct their experiments.

    They made their money from exploiting others in different fields.

  • @[email protected]
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    219 months ago

    Not to take away from your shower thought OP, but more to soften the blow (because yeah, we for sure are worshipping billionaire fucksticks like Elon Musk as a society), we are still awarding the Nobel Prize to people who make strides in scientific areas that benefit humanity.

    The people who discovered mRNA technology and prepped it for clinical use were just given the Nobel prize this week: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/10/02/1202941256/nobel-prize-goes-to-scientists-who-made-mrna-covid-vaccines-possible

    • @[email protected]
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      39 months ago

      The reward for a Nobel prize is about 900k€, shared between the winner of a given prize. The last ceo of the cac40 in France makes 1400k€/year. The average for the cac40 is 4500k€/year. That’s a salary btw, there probably are other revenues with that.

      • @[email protected]
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        29 months ago

        Oh no!!! I didn’t know it was split between all 3 of them! I thought each were given around $1M. That is still not enough for their contributions to society (especially in lieu of billionaires who do nothing), but it’s especially obscene that they all get closer to $300K instead.

  • @[email protected]
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    169 months ago

    What about the 19th century tycoons who paid to manufacture their own veneration through philanthropy fueled by the wealth they unjustly amassed?

  • @[email protected]
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    139 months ago

    Now we actually demonize scientists and science in general, right from the pinnacle of science, the mobile phone. Humanity is a joke

    • @[email protected]
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      29 months ago

      Oi, mate. I know you were watching Doctor Who, however i’ve decided to hold up all TV broadcasts here for the next few days to inform you that the queen has died.

      • Great Nritain
      • Chaotic Entropy
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        19 months ago

        Also you’re now the subject of that old berk, who you always thought was kind of a ponce, as they’re now the ruler of the land by divine mandate. Waheyyyyyy…

    • deweydecibel
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      19 months ago

      How many people actually celebrate them, though? Like, percentage wise? The media maybe, out of a perverse sense of tradition, but the people?

      Most people seem to range from festering hatred of the institution to indifference. Maybe enjoyment of the spectacle, or a dated reverence for an office that has long lost any true meaning, but actually celebrating them? Feels like that’s something you don’t find too much.

  • @[email protected]
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    119 months ago

    It all goes back to the “American (lie) dream”. The idea that with enough hard work you will become rich and better than your parents. The CEOs have to make their succes fit the narrative so they pretend to be scientists who worked hard.

  • @[email protected]
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    99 months ago

    If you want to know what a society celebrates all you need do is look at the pictures of who and what they put on their money.

    US: war generals, capitalists, banks, bankers, federalists, slave owners.

    Other countries: flora, fauna, suffragettes, scientists, influential women, explorers, birds, fish.

  • iZom
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    -49 months ago

    Tesla ticks both these boxes.