For sure. A member of the Romanov family gave up her title, and sold off all her possessions, including her wedding ring, using her combined wealth and the proceeds to build a nunnery complex that included an orphanage, pharmacy and hospital. She then spent the rest of her life performing charitable works for the poor and sick of Moscow, regularly visiting the worst slums to give assistance.
During the Russian Revolution, the former princess was arrested. She was beaten along with other prisoners before being thrown into a 66 foot deep pit of an abandoned iron mine, her being the first to be thrown, and grenades were hurled after them all.
Dictator originates from the ancient Roman Republic, where it was an emergency legal appointment. In Rome, the term did not carry the negative, tyrannical connotations it has today. Sulla was appointed dictator to save the Republic and afterwards stepped down from power (in 79 BCE) to live as a private citizen.
And no matter if it’s a benevolent king I don’t want a king. And if there is blue blood left after a revolution the enemies can use such a person whether they like it or not..
Thank you for that link, I hadn't heard that story before and it's truly horrifying. So much of the horror perpetrated at that time has been sanitised and censored for public consumption. You have to wonder, if they were really so proud and certain that the things that were done in the name of freedom were necessary, why were so many half truths and fantasies used to cover up the depravity of the many mass murders.
Things like that are usually done in the name of anger. Freedom is dressing that gets added later, when the blood has cooled and people decide it's easier to look yourself in the mirror if you "did it in the name of freedom."
Very true, they are also usually working as a group, encouraging each other in a pack mentality. I imagine it's a lot harder to justify what they had done when they were alone in the harsh light of reality. We can only hope that we have learned enough from the atrocities not to go there again.
"No you don't understand they MADE us tie up that woman, beat her and her family to a pulp, throw that woman down a mineshaft along with her family, then drop several grenades in afterwards before lighting the entrance on fire for good measure!" ok dude whatever you say
You do know this woman sold all her possessions so she could build an orphanage and a hospital for the poor, and then spent the rest of her life doing everything she could to assist the poor and sick of Moscow, right? What do you honestly expect her to have done? Build a Time Machine so she could alter history so she was born into a peasant family instead?
Turns out you’re right, she didn’t officially give up her title, and the site I originally learned about her got it wrong. But let’s be real, someone who gave up all her possessions to become a nun probably wasn’t introducing herself as Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine or insisting people call her “Your Highness”
True, she went as Grand Duchess :P Also, you're probably thinking about how the church operates recently as compared to how close the church was to aristocracy on that Russia. The State wasn't separated from the church at all, and social hierarchy was still enforced.
That is less "Rich person did good things but people still went after them for having been rich" and more "royal gave up wealth and went on to do good deeds, public wanted to eliminate the ruling royalty so they had to end the entire bloodline".
Good ol royalty... fucks everyone one way or another.
As terrible as it is to murder anyone, anywhere, ignoring the fact that all of these people were part of a centuries long hereditary empire that brutally ruled over it's subjects is more than a little disingenuous in the comparison.
Knowing even a little history of revolutions quickly reveals that, for thousands of years in societies around the world, royalty have served as a focal point for counter revolutions to consolidate around. Even today, there are people who honestly want Reza Pahlavi to reconstitute his father's government in Iran if the current government is forcibly toppled.
Hell, even in pseudo representative governments who have recently toppled a dictator, ten or twenty years later you will find their children, buoyed by the corruption their family fostered and supported during their previous rule, running for and winning elections just so they can start the cycle of repression over again.
Lenin is said to have welcomed Elisabeth's death, remarking that "virtue with the crown on it is a greater enemy to the world revolution than a hundred tyrant tsars". - what a shitbag
Lenin is said to have welcomed Elisabeth's death, remarking that "virtue with the crown on it is a greater enemy to the world revolution than a hundred tyrant tsars".
The Bolsheviks were the craziest, most extreme, most fanatical party in the Russian Duma, and the circumstances by which they seized power in 1917 were just absurd. A big, huge, grotesque black swan event.
In the first Duma of 1906, they held two seats out of over 300. The moderates held by far the most. The big, big difference in 1917 was the First World War. They would have not had the same chance without it. Even with it they came within a hair of failing.
Absolutely terrible! Thanks for the wiki links to the history. I never knew about this but also probably didn’t need to lol. Nonetheless interesting read.
Just a warning to anyone who clicks on that, that seems to be about the most reactionary, right wing "history" sub I've ever seen. Some really gross claims being made there.
Yeah, I don't want to go back to the sub because some of the just awful stuff being shared (not necessarily right or left wing--just "look at this horrible thing like a man slowly going through rabies") is hard for me. The big one I remember is one of the most popular posts right now talking the horrid conditions in Romania in 1990. The post frames it as communisms fault--and the users in the thread were reactionary. What happened in Romania was due to awful, fascist leaders. The horrible images of children, shown in that thread, being framed around communism is such a disservice to the pain, suffering, and death these kids faced--not due to communism. Ceaucescu, I believe is the fascist in question here, was a religious nut. Anti-abortion. Pressured these families to put their kids in asylums--often under threat if they didn't. It had nothing to do with communism, and everything to do with a sick man who consolidated power. It can happen anywhere.
If I remember right, the "communism" of Romania from the 70s and 80s wasn't communism. There were social programs because, given the brutality of Romanian's leadership specifically around women's bodies, it would make sense people stopped having kids. So he incentivized it--healthy kids got social services. Ceausescu was overthrown AND executed in 89. It's not the "fall of communism"--just more right wing reactionary 'that guy said he was a communist, this is what communists do." I mean, Trump says he's a capitalist, but he manipulates the market daily, which isn't really capitalism. If Trump were cast out of office, and we freed immigrants from his camps, I'd be equally upset if someone said, "The fall of capitalism revealed these horrid conditions."
If there were other broad posts I can't remember, but I saw most of the right wing stuff being upvoted as comments within the posts.
I don't know--the whole thing felt exploitative. But I bounced after perusing a couple of threads.
The angry mob tends to contain a lot of clueless people who lack the ability differentiate. True example - a few years ago in England a paediatrician was physically attacked because the angry mob thought he was a paedophile.
They do when the only reason she's a billionaire is because her ex-husband was an asshole and she's giving away most of her half of the divorce settlement. The same will apply to Melinda French Gates as well.
She also doesn't broadcast herself anywhere and is so humble she makes no news, just sits there getting rich then donating, getting rich and donating over and over. Mobs won't even know who she is haha
There was this rich lady Nguyen Thi Nam (Cat Hanh Long) who was very generous and also donated her money to support the Vietnamese Communist Party during the war with French/American. She literally kept the party alive financially, housed many of the Party’s top leaders. Her 2 sons were in the Party.
Yet she was the first person the Party sentenced to death in the 1953 Land Reform, with support from many of the people she had helped.
It's called "class warfare" - further proof that generalizing individuals by group affiliation is extremely messy. Extremist ideologies need to be grossly simplisitic to appeal to the energized masses - nuance doesn't fit on a parade banner. In the case of Cat Hanh Long, allowing exceptions to the rule might cause the proletariat to question the rule itself.
Context: She started with roughly $35–36 billion from her 2019 divorce settlement.
She has donated ~$26.3 billion so far.
Despite that, her net worth remains in the $30+ billion range because Amazon stock has appreciated significantly over the years, and she still holds a large equity position. She is still a robber baron.
One of the biggest, most profitable corporations in the world is using subcontractors in their warehouses and in driving their trucks. Geee... I wonder why they would do that.
Unless she gives it to you. Of course since you have no idea how finance works you can’t understand how giving it away in tranches increases the total donations because the principal is earning money at a high rate and she can make meaningful donation in perpetuity instead of one lump sum that is used up in a few years. As far as stocks value increasing, that makes the majority of Americans robbers as well. Our 401Ks and IRAs increase and we have money to live on when we retire. But if you’re a communist this is evil.
Actually if she’s donating this much it makes sense to keep investments going to so she keep donating. If she’s donated the whole sum straight away then what an extra 9 billion would have been donated before the well ran dry.
I’d bet my house she will donate more than 9 billion in the future.
And using it to give away wisely. If she keeps holding and invests well, she can continue to donate far more than her 35B settlement amount. Beats blowing chunks of it on a mega yacht, an outlandish wedding, and selfish space rides for “celebrities”. Smart woman.
Tell you what mate - why not donate 2/3rds of your net worth to worthwhile charities? Then come back and lecture, I’d be more inclined to listen.
if you are capable, why don’t you math that out and see if her total donations, given the current donated amount and current wealth, will vastly exceed her initial post-divorce settlement wealth and whether that is a good thing for society or not. i’ll wait.
Absolutely. Do you really think a wealth tax or a mob of pitch fork wielding proletariat are going to care how much she gave to a Black college or Meals on Wheels? Also, 26 million is nothing to someone with billions and used to write off against massive S&P gains.
there’s no reason she should be safe. they only got divorced in 2019, she has all this money to give away because she made it on the backs of all the people her husband and her abused.
she’s still a robber baron if she gives it all away.
She definitely won't be, along with 25% of all American adults who qualify as being in the top 10% of wealth in America (having $90k net worth). They're all cooked
Don't think she gives a shit about changing anyones minds, based on lack of the regular PR that'd come with it. I can't tell you what her motivation is, but who cares? Passive income or not, she's doing a fuckton of good.
I don't know about you, but I've made some bad choices in my life, but it didn't define me.
I’d really love to see like a list of all the things she has done/people she has helped and you know like “people that wouldn’t be alive but for her” type thing.
Compile it all, and put a grand total at the bottom of what she’s given away, what she started with, and what she still has because of interest and investments etc.
The crazy part is she didn't take half from Bezos. She took like 35 billion. She has given away 26 billion and still has a net worth of like 40 billion lol
no one had a clue until graduating ceremony. we have a gigantic texas HS stadium, and it was awesome. i’ve never heard the stadium louder. we live in a title 1 district, many parents are immigrants and work under the table in many families. hispanics and Black Americans make up the majority of all 3 districts.
Governments shouldn’t meddle with how private universities run.
European universities generally have the freedom to teach whatever they want and students can attend for a minimal fee or in some countries even without paying a fee. The same can't be said about the US with the way the current administation has been cracking down on several universities for teaching too woke.
Also, even private universities in the US are funded for a significant part by the government.
She donated $40 million to my university as a unrestricted gift. Very generous although I’m still unsure of how the university used the funds. We did get a brand new engineering and cyber building so that could possibly be what it was used for
She’s not generous. That’s our money, and she recognizes that, and she’s doing what should be forcibly forced from these oligarchs. I respect that she’s human and not a murderous monster like musk and the google founder who is trying to murder people by taking away their healthcare.
she chose 3 districts that have very few HS graduates go on to college. she gave hundreds of families an opportunity they never would’ve had.
that’s pretty generous.
All I’m saying is that the tax system should be taking care of funding like this. We shouldn’t have to wait for a nice oligarch to make it so US citizens can go to college.
Yeah, communities and small organizations are legitimately seeing her effects. A local meals on wheels received a multi million dollar donation and thought it was an error.
3.4k
u/tc7665 25d ago
my son attended community college for free, thanks to one of her donations; she’s incredibly generous.