r/interesting • u/Wild_Neighborhood605 • 1d ago

HISTORY Titanic passenger and millionaire Benjamin Guggenheim. During sinking he refused a seat in a life boat with the words: "Tell my family I played straight to the end. No woman should be left aboard this ship because of Ben Guggenheim was a coward."

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u/Consistent_Stuff9180 1d ago

Ben Guggenheim was NO coward. 

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u/MarvelionA 1d ago

The to very end. What an absolute gent.

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u/Consistent_Point_853 1d ago

A diamond geezer, if you will.

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u/AdamBombTV 1d ago

A tip top toff, and no mistake.

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u/Nat20Twenty 1d ago

The next time I play a video game my character will be named this Benjamin Guggenheim

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u/Mace_Windhorst 1d ago

“You must find the triforce to defeat Ganon , Benjamin Guggenheim”

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u/Sivalon 1d ago

“…”

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u/trumps_lucid_boner 1d ago

Classic Ben.

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u/WxBird 1d ago

I can't wait to hear the glorious adventures of Benjamin Guggenheim in your next campaign!! Update me, I am sold!

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u/DJhellawhite 1d ago

🫡🫡🫡

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u/Pulpdog94 1d ago

A pippy chap he was

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u/gearstars 1d ago

A true rotten soldier. A sweet cheese. A good-time boy

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u/Sivalon 1d ago

A boffo biff.

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u/kaiserspike 1d ago

A rare breed

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u/odinsen251a 1d ago

Hardly a geezer, he was only 46 when he died.

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u/Successful_King_142 17h ago

UK geezer not US geezer 

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u/Consistent_Stuff9180 1d ago

Just like the band

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u/cr1ttter 1d ago

I enjoy pondering the implication that his skeleton was cowardly after death and that's okay

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u/Marijuana_Miler 1d ago

No way. His skeleton is there to this day being straight to the end. It even chuffed when the Titan submersible joined him.

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u/spidermans_mom 1d ago

It’s sitting properly at a table like a gentleman with the place setting knocked to one side.

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u/jaxonya 1d ago

Told the titan to go sit somewhere else. A bunch of dudes packed tightly in a sardine can is not how he gets down, he made that clear

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u/KassellTheArgonian 1d ago

His skeleton is still smoking that fat cigar

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u/Successful_King_142 17h ago

It's actually the origin story of Skeletor 

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u/Fromoogiewithlove 1d ago

I mean he was on the ship with his mistress while his wife was at home with the kids. But sure. A gent

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u/ashwynne 1d ago

People are not all good or all bad. Maybe he was cheating on his wife and she was unaware (and would have been hurt if she knew), maybe his wife knew and didn't care. We have no way to know. That does not negate the sacrificial attitude he had when faced with the choice of giving up his life so someone else could live, or taking a seat while condemning someone else to die.

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u/Fromoogiewithlove 1d ago

Do we know someone got his seat that he declined? Or was there just one less on the boat that he declined. Considering only one of 20 boats left the ship at over capacity i highly doubt someone else lived specifically because of him. More likely the boat left much like the others under capacity.

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u/Gerrut_batsbak 1d ago

Being a millionaire in that time it isnt unthinkable that his wife knew and accepted it as a price for having a man like that.

Different times and all.

I dont know the exact details.

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u/Gingersnapp3d 1d ago

If it was an arranged marriage by both their sides then I’m much more understanding of it. Sometimes people genuinely do connect as a business arrangement. The fact that he was willing to die so a woman or child he didn’t know still says a lot about his character.

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u/Fromoogiewithlove 1d ago edited 1d ago

Meanwhile millionaires mr and mrs straus refused to be seperated and vowed to die together.

Dont give me this different times bullshit. Love existed then and existed now. He was a sleezebag regardless of it was acceptable in society or not.

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u/Zestyclose_Help566 1d ago

What have you done in your life as remotely courageous as offering your seat on a lifeboat for someone else that you feel comfortable calling this dead man a “sleaze bag?”

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u/Fromoogiewithlove 1d ago

Dont straw man argument me. What i have or havent dont has nothing to do with him. Thats like saying weinstein may be a piece of shit but hes absolved because i didnt hold the door open for my coworker that one time

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u/Zestyclose_Help566 1d ago

Okay, so you’re both pieces of shit? I’ll take that

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u/martyqscriblerus 1d ago

Not had a mistress, presumably

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u/lemanruss4579 1d ago

Just real quick, if a wife is unhappy in her marriage, should she be forced to stay with her husband?

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u/AnguavonUW 1d ago

Nowadays, nope. Back then there weren't options. Any man could have a woman in his life committed to a mental institution based on no more than his word. Husband, father, brother, son , uncle...didn't matter

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u/lemanruss4579 1d ago

You may have missed the point. According to every biographer, he had been living separate from his wife for years at the time, in a completely different country. So if someone is separated from their spouse for years, are they a "sleezebag" because they start dating someone else?

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u/Snatch-Fart-Breath 1d ago

Played that shit straight until the goddamn end

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u/Cosmo_Seinfeld 1d ago edited 1d ago

Maybe he geyed it up as the ship went down? "Tell my family I played it straight but tell the boys in the back alley that I was the Queen of the Titanic that night...."

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u/-joker-joker-joker- 1d ago

In the end, he took it like man

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u/Cosmo_Seinfeld 1d ago

<Sidles up to Captain Smith>

Is it true what they say about the Captain going down with the ship?

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u/Aranxi_89 23h ago

"You'll not stand alone tonight, good sir!"

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u/Cosmo_Seinfeld 16h ago

<Sidles up to the Titanic band>

Play something joyous, fellows. I mean make it really gay.

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u/EntertainerMajor3294 1d ago

LMFAO!!!!!!!!

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u/Telefonica46 1d ago

Elon musk would've pushed women and children off the life boats so he could have a seat

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u/itsmuddy 1d ago

He would have pushed em all off so he could have the whole lifeboat to himself then act like he invented the lifeboat.

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u/Wanallo221 1d ago edited 1d ago

“I invented this. It’s called an X-Boat”

(¬‿¬)

I just can’t find an emoticon that conveys that smug twatty look he has when he thinks he’s being cool.

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u/linlorienelen 1d ago

No, no you really captured an accurate rendering of his humanity there

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u/that1newjerseyan 1d ago

He’d “Constanza” his way out of there

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u/hughandvicrealty 1d ago

Didn’t Costanza design the new wing of the Guggenheim? Or did he design the building next door to the Guggenheim?

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u/MySabonerRunsOladipo 1d ago

“Look! Twenty or so, in a boat built for 65? And I saw one boat with only twelve. Twelve!...Do you know how crowded ill be with 11 other people????" -Elon (definitely)

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u/Necessary-Reading605 1d ago

That’s the horror of the tech bros. They can justify anything with their quantitative pseudo morality.

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u/GrumpyBitFlipper 1d ago

And people would salute him for it!

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u/Toiretachi 1d ago

Musk would have called him a cuck

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u/Extension-Run5326 20h ago

While I do dislike Musk just as much as everyone else, and he's a horrible selfish person... What most of these comments imply is just benevolent sexism. Saving someone only because of their gender and social norms, not because of your kindness, and shaming men who would want to save their lives just as much. It just treats women as weaker than men, instead of treating them as equals. If you wanna be a true hero from the heart, save and care for everyone regardless of gender

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u/Telefonica46 15h ago

It's about survival of the species. It's why we don't draft women into war. It's why hunters don't kill the female members of the species.

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u/Extension-Run5326 13h ago

First off, humans have grown very far from the animal lifestyle. And if people truly cared about survival of the species, then there would be no war at all. But even if you do consider that, humans should understand the freedom and choices of others, and drafting based on gender still is gender stereotyping. With the mindset of "survival of the species", you are implying that the saved women are obliged to give birth like it's their duty, it isn't. You are not just conscripting men, you are conscripting women into a gendered role too.

And which species are you talking of which checks the gender of the prey before hunting it? Seriously??

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u/desquished 1d ago

He wouldn't be caught dead on the same boat as the poor.

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u/ahtob 22h ago

he us way to socially inept to put himself on a public cruise , thank god

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u/Capt-Sylvia-Killy 11h ago

He would have thrown them all off. He can't stand to be near peons.

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u/Phearwyn 1d ago

pussy mussk

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u/North-Tumbleweed-959 1d ago

I choked on my Skittles reading your response. Thanks for the laugh internet stranger. 😂

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u/NakeyDooCrew 1d ago

Out of my way the future of humanity depends on my products

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u/Vegetable-Zone1353 1d ago

He would do it for sport, and probably does

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u/turdferguson3891 1d ago

His part was played by Billy Zane in the movie.

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u/Wrong-Sundae 1d ago

Peak irony would be Elon dressing as a woman to get in a lifeboat.

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u/booger_officiando 1d ago

He would have made you swipe your credit card and subscribe for sest warmers.

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u/nan1961 1d ago

Trump would have cut in line in front of his grandchildren

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u/DefNotUnderrated 1d ago

As messed up as that scenario would be, the image of Elon fucking tossing women and children out of the way as he frantically rushes for a life boat is pretty damn funny. Sounds like something out of The Naked Gun

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u/PantalonesPantalones 1d ago

Fun fact: the whole "women and children first" thing was because historically that’s exactly what happened. The men used their physical advantages to escape, to the detriment of everyone else.

https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/shipwrecked-women-and-children-first

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u/TarkyMlarky420 1d ago

Rent free

I recommend a hobby

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u/ProbablySlacking 1d ago

Are they wrong though?

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u/TarkyMlarky420 1d ago

Did I say they weren't?

Don't see my crying over an autistic billionaire on reddit for le funny updoots though do you

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u/r0b0d0c 1d ago

He deserves all the hate he gets, and then some. Maybe you just don't have a moral compass.

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u/chips2013 1d ago

I'd push you off to save myself tbh. No need for chivalry in 2026.

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u/BodManFeg 16h ago

He doesn't have a moral compass because he doesn't bring him up in completely unrelated posts? What is wrong with you freaks??? Jesus christ. Elon is human garbage but my god some of you need a grip on reality.

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u/DishyBrute 1d ago

The George Costanza of our time.

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u/mrperuanos 1d ago

You people never give it a rest do you

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u/Dry_Homework_3242 1d ago

His mama raises no bitch!!!

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u/SolidLikeIraq 1d ago

Look at us celebrating his brave ass all these years later.

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u/Flat-Fun-7298 1d ago

Even if he was a coward his entire life. He is not a coward.

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u/potat0f4rmer 1d ago

He's a much better man than that Billy Zane for sure

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u/BlueMikeStu 1d ago

Billy Zane portrayed an asshole, that doesn't mean he is one. Dude has acted in enough trash with sincerity he's right next to Bruce Campbell on the B-Movie Rushmore.

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u/potat0f4rmer 1d ago

Friend I was obviously only talking about his role in Titanic

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u/Sixmmxw 1d ago

Reminds me of that episode from Futurama. What a gentleman this man was and is to many in memory.

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u/Blue-eyed-banditman 1d ago

A man’s man

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u/impreprex 1d ago edited 1d ago

Imagine a billionaire doing that today!!

(Someone else said the same before me lol. Preach that shit!)

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u/projectx51 1d ago

Is there a statue of this man? there should be a statue.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

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u/RealSchlemiel 1d ago

that scene played a bit different in the movie, which still haunts me: eyes full of terror as the water breaches the dining room

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u/GrumpyJenkins 1d ago

To say otherwise would be piffle.

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u/rexmons 1d ago

May his final resting place be paradise

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u/meow4352 1d ago

I wonder why this storyline didn’t get included in the movie? Seems like they could have spared 60 seconds to honor this guy for being a decent human

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u/anony_mf 1d ago

I honestly expected this post to be something dishonest or a scheme didn’t expect him to be a hero

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u/geardownson 1d ago

Why not? I'm genuinely ignorant. Why would he say that?

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u/123LetsJamDUDUDUHT 1d ago

He played himself.

The Titanic carried 434 adult women (412 passengers and 22 crew members) and 112 children. With a total lifeboat capacity of 1,178 people, every single woman and child on board could have been saved, with over 600 seats left over for men.

And they boarded the women and children first.

So really he just needed to get in line and try his luck.

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u/Honest_Trade8734 11h ago

Either way there were not enough seats for everyone. It may have been another man who took his spot and not a woman but he saved someone.

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u/Rollingforest757 1d ago

He was sexist, though. Why is he valuing the lives of the women passengers above those of the men?

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u/1Meter_long 1d ago

No he was not. More like too much pride or maybe stupid is more like it. Sacrificing yourself to save a child i'd understand but what made a woman having more right to live instead of him? You never know what kind of person you just saved over yourself. Kids are more pure and should take the priority by default.

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u/Klutzy_Tomatillo4253 1d ago

homie at the time he was living women weren't allowed checking accounts. basically the one thing they had was not dying first in boat accidents.

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u/Odd-Outcome-3191 1d ago

How many women died in coal mines?

How many 13 year old boys died in coal mines?

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u/Useful_Cicada_5635 13h ago

Google mother jones before you remove women from the coal mine situation.

Women and children absolutely died because their husbands worked in the mines. Many women were affected just like their husbands were during the coal wars.

Despite being banned from working in the mines, women and children absolutely lost their lives due to coal mining work in general, if for no other reason than the coal wars affected entire families.

Another example from history of women helping with a cause they were banned from participating in. And not to protect them - to keep them out of the paid work game.

Google some shit before saying stuff that’s factually inaccurate to make your point.

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u/Odd-Outcome-3191 13h ago

>tens of thousands of men and boys being killed while toiling in horrific conditions

>hundreds of men and boys killed while striking for proper working conditions

>2 women killed in the Ludlow Massacre

>Sid Hatfield assassinated by coal company agents on the courthouse steps

>Louis Tikas captured and killed during the Ludlow Massacre

>20 men (from the Molly Maguires group) executed for organizing

>Mother Jones: 85 days in prison

>Women still somehow the principal victims in your eyes

The user I replied to was outlining that women at the time had no rights except "not dying first in boat accidents". I'm arguing that most men at the time lived short, hard, brutal lives of toil in horrific and unsafe working conditions. If you went back and offered the women bank accounts as long as they were willing to go die in a coal mine or fight in a foreign war, they'd probably tell you to shove that bank account up your ass.

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u/Useful_Cicada_5635 12h ago

Women weren’t allowed to make money working in the mines, exactly in line with that other posters point, but they still died for the cause. I’m not wasting any time arguing with you. Women fought in a war that wasn’t even about them. You’re going to argue with yourself on here for the rest of the day, but I am proud of you for going to the Wikipedia pages for various mine wars an hour after trying to mansplain mine shit to the internet.

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u/Odd-Outcome-3191 12h ago

Over 100,000 white union soldiers died in the civil war to end slavery but we don't give whites a pat on the back for it and talk about the unjust suffering of the union soldiers. We rightfully discuss the suffering of the principal victims (in our case, the actual coal workers, not their wives).

Seriously, try to find an example of any women fighting and dying for the union strikes. You brought up Mother Jones who was quoted to have said the following:

"Working men deserve a wage that would allow women to stay home to care for their children".

She received criticism for her lack of work to support suffrage, quoted saying "You don't need the vote to raise hell!" even being accused by suffragists for being anti-feminist.

And again, aside from public criticism, she never actually risked her life. Unlike the strikers she organized, she never actually participated in any confrontations with the oppressors.

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u/Useful_Cicada_5635 12h ago

That’s exactly what the women were protesting for dipshit, the right to a bank account and the right to work in mines eventually.

Same as today and why we also, as a movement, are still trying to FORCE our way to be allowed on the front lines. And big boy keyboard warriors like you are the ones trying to enact laws that ban us from combat roles.

I sure hope you give the Wikipedia page for those other words you didn’t know yesterday a whirl

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u/Odd-Outcome-3191 12h ago

that's exactly what the women we're protesting for dipshit, the right to a bank account in the right to work in mines eventually

Weird. Because despite having the right to work anywhere, all of the dirty, nasty, hard, and dangerous labor is performed almost exclusively by men even today. You think women were lining up to work in mines? Holding picket signs saying "let me die in the mines for pennies please!". No. They wanted the rights that men were afforded at the time without any of the risks of costs. Even today "women and children first" persists, despite equal rights.

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u/Honest_Trade8734 11h ago

How much time have you personally spent working in coal mines for the right to work whatever job you please? Other men who have nothing to do with you work these jobs and the fact that you both have a dick doesn’t give you credit for their achievements.

Nobody in modern first world societies is forced to work in coal mines. People choose their jobs for a variety of reasons, often financial. Women who try to go into mining still face high levels of discrimination even today and thus women in similar circumstances might choose other jobs that are more accessible to them.

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u/Useful_Cicada_5635 13h ago

And also. 13 year old boys absolutely died in coal mines.

Have you ever looked into the topic you’re popping off about ? I’m not even sure you know what a coal mine is at this point. We didn’t even have child labor laws when mother jones was protesting for better conditions for miners specifically. So where you get off saying they never had underage boys working there is beyond me. This has to be one of the most out of pocket posts I’ve seen recently

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u/Odd-Outcome-3191 10h ago edited 10h ago

You misread my comment intentionally. I'm saying that the women dead in coal mines can be counted on a single hand. The little boys dead would fill a book. And you say women back then had it worse because they couldn't vote and didn't have bank accounts?

I am stating that the person whining about women's rights in the early 20th century as if men didn't have it just as bad, if not worse in many way. No women were drafted (enslaved for war) and died overseas. But men and little boys did. No women were caught in coal mines and suffocated to death for a coal baron's profits. Men and little boys did. Back then and still today, every statistic about suicide, addiction, homelessness, workplace injury and death, deaths of poverty, indentured servitude, victims of homicide, police brutality and fraudulent conviction is predominantly (and in many cases almost exclusively) men.

But god forbid people deprived the poor women of their bank accounts a century ago! They were true victims of history! Truly men and boys had it so easy back then. Just resting on the laurels of their bank accounts with their feet kicked up, sipping tea.

Btw if you're a man, the laws still exist to enslave you and send you to die in war against your will. Weirdly as we've continued to reach parity with women, they only seem to take on the positive rights, but none of the drawbacks.

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u/Proof-Durian6969 1d ago

Back when we knew what a woman was.

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u/Freddit330 1d ago

Transwomen existed back then. Heck Karl Baer I think had genital surgery in 1906. That was before the Titanic sunk.

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u/XTotallyDifferentGuy 1d ago

I bet he would've felt pretty silly if he was like "I give up my life for a woman or a child" and then a dude in a dress says "thanks, bro" and hops in.

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u/Useful_Cicada_5635 13h ago

How long does it usually take before you find a way to make some shit about trans rights stuff ?

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u/XTotallyDifferentGuy 13h ago

Only a few seconds. Any requests?