But as I and others have pointed out, Hitler's own contribution was minimal, as was that of other senior Nazis.

The design of the first Volkswagen was stolen from a Czech car manufacturer, Tatra, where it had been designed by a Czech / Austrian engineer called Hans Ledwinka. The Germans just made some comparatively minor tweaks and changed the look of the car somewhat. But the engineering was Ledwinka.

Some (tongue in cheek) sources claim that one of the reasons Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia in the first place was to make the Czechs shut up about the fact that they'd been robbed.

The car was only manufactured commercially by the Nazis for a very short period before the production facilities were taken over by the war effort. And anyway, there was no actual company called Volkswagen at the time. This was the name of the model.

After the war it was a British army major, Ivan Hirst, who basically got production started again and managed to take what was left of the factory and what was left of the engineering and intellectual property and put it all on commercially viable footing.

So Hirst was the actual father of the Volkswagen company and Ledwinka was the father of the Volkswagen Beetle. All Hitler ever did was get in the way and make things complicated.

So just for the sake of balance, where are the red lines for those people on the thread that are piling on with the "virtue signalling" label and similar sentiments?

What would make you do a sharp intake of breath, and say "Well, that's a bit much! I'm not spending my money THERE!"

Or is it just all an open playing field?

as westerners it appear we have no red lines, otherwise we'd be getting our knickers in a twist about much bigger things then some religious (fruit and) nut

I'll jump in, as I currently have 3 or 4 personal "boycotts" (mind you, this is the very first time I ever talk about them beyond conversations with my wife): I draw the line when corporate behaviour is clearly abhorrent. I mentioned earlier Barilla, whose CEO, Mr. Barilla mentioned in an interview that his company would never feature a gay family in their advertising. Same thing with Chick-fil-A (during the years I lived in the US), whose CEO said that the US was inviting God's wrath when they re-defined what marriage meant (and funded anti-LGBTQ causes).

For me the line is clearly defined by behaviour: if it was MY behaviour, and I was embarrassed if/when other people found out about it, it means I wouldn't do it, and wouldn't want to feed companies that do. I am a firm believer in everyone's responsibility/grain of sand. I do my very best to teach my children what we believe is a fairly globally accepted sense of right and wrong (disclaimer: we're not religious at all), we try to live a very "green" and sustainable life (we invested a sh!tload of money in our house when installing photovoltaic panels, a new Wärmepumpe, additional insulation, we avoid and re-use everything possible, we fly as little as possible if at all), and I do not preach or proselytise (this post here is an exception, as it's a discussion about it). I choose to buy from companies whose values I share, or at the very least whose behaviour I don't find quasi-Neanderthal.

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I buy nothing made in China because of their repressive regime, aggression towards the Uighurs etc.

I don't buy from Amazon due to their employment practices
I don't drive because it means putting in fuel that support Middle Eastern despots and of course contributes to global warming.
I don't fly for the same reason
I buy nothing in plastic

I don't eat meat due to cows and pigs farting creating methane, not to mention all the other things wrong with eating meat
I don't eat vegetable 'cos I don't like them and they have to be transported adding to pollution not to mention the fuel the trucks have to use
I don't eat potatoes or rice as they contain carbs which make me fat which will the be a burden on the health system

I don't travel on trains because they are made from steel, the iron ore which is used to make steel coming from other repressive regimes
I don't use mobile phones as they contain rare earths which are mined in places like the Congo where they use both child and slave labour

And now i can't eat my favourite chocolate!!!

Err, how do I get off the planet!!!

(Tongue in cheek obviously! )

I fully agree with and applaud the boycotts, but leave the Neanderthals out of this, they get a bad rep for no good reason!

I'm typing this on a mobile phone, I'm wearing clothes, I drink coffee and eat cashew nuts.

There is a long line of people working for peanuts in shocking conditions, harsh foremen and uncaring CEOs behind every one of those items.

But what am I going to do? These poor sods don't even have a dole to be thrown on to. To boycott these products wouldn't just be showboating, it would be plain evil.

Yep.

As sociopaths do.

Google Wichterle, btw. Same story.

People used their energy and smarts to create. Now it seems that people use their energy and smarts to virtue signal. I'd blame the schools but it is more complex than that.

Has Grandma forgotten her glasses again? There's still lots of creativity all over the world, in all areas of human endeavor.

Probably not as much as was happening in Bohemia in the 1960s between learning how to pack a suitcase and tie shoelaces, but we do what we can, given our considerable handicaps...

Can't do that all the time, but I try my best! I focus on choosing some brands that I like more and think are a bit "different" (sweet ignorance, perhaps...) and not on boycotting anything. OH is so peculiar with all his electronic and hobby stuff (for other reasons than mine though ) that we don't really need two people in the family who take a loooot of time to choose whatever we need in our household.

I don't think people should even feel peer-pressured to change their habits on account of the few weird ones out there (like myself) who feel the need to do the infinitesimal that may or may not have an impact at all. I do it because I feel like that. It's not virtue signaling, or grand-standing.

On the other hand I have to say that I'm a bit...how should I put it...dissapointed, at some of us here making fun of the fact that some people choose not to support businesses that act shamefully. If I don't want to befriend someone like that, I won't buy their product either.

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Haha, I know. We're all adults here, even though we might not behave like ones... Don't get upset, we have the usual power spiels here, that's all.
I never felt pressured to buy or not buy anything tbh. Not for "moral" reasons, neither for fashion "necessities" or to keep up with the Joneses. F. the Joneses. It's just, you know, kind of nice to read opinions you can relate to a certain degree. No worries, you don't come across as some "virtue-signalling" lad or whatever silly insults we have on the menu.
Laderach guy is against other people's choices (or other people period), we (some) strive not to be like him. Enjoy whatever you buy, no need to justify yourself.

It's not from farting, but rather from burping as they regurgitate their cud.

Had an interesting conversation with a local on this very point yesterday.

Tom

What does that mean? Is smarts a synonym for brains or something? It’s not an expression I’ve heard before.

It's an old fashioned American expression, like "do you dig?" and "hep cat".

I understood it from reading old Mad magazines.

Folk still do the former, as far as I can see, or else the world would be a very dull place indeed. Just take one small field - YA fiction, for example - and there is huge innovation.

Not sure schools have anything to do with virtue signalling. It'll be the parents, all day long.

‘Smarts’ is when you catch your chin in your anorak zip.

We splurged today for some overpriced chocolates in a train station next to a abgefackelt bridge.
Not sure why they're so celebrated.
To be honest, coming from a country where eating out was not the norm but rather an exception, the (western) celebration of food brands seemed super cool and a taste of freedom - man was I for a shock and surprise - all these mass manufactured sweets, cookies and what's not are actually tasting more or less the same and way, way worse than anything made at home, and by far.
It is always over-sweetened, laced with some industrial durability fats and other highly processed ingredients.
I found one or two local places where they make home rivalling pastries and sweets (one of them is Fleur de pain in Lausanne region).
Unfortunately, Läderach doesn't cut it...

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[Snore] You know that eating out was the exception everywhere back when we were kids, right?

I refuse To believe Cannock actually has any restaurants. Wetherspoons was going to open there, but had doubts about the clientele.