Actually I looked up the real story of Johnny Appleseed and he was more about making hard cider and selling land. π
this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2026
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You don't recall correctly, and I have no idea where you got that information. Appleseed actually was a successful businessman who bought some land, owning about 1200 acres (~5 km^2^), but by all accounts he was a genuinely good person, and I've never heard what you're saying (and not substantiating) that he did.
Ah but you see, their comment has the message of "capitalism bad", so it doesn't really matter if what they wrote is true.
I'd go even further and say that this is more generic than capitalism/anticapitalism wish fulfillment. It's a desire to speak truth to power but without any of the effort or sincere curiosity to learn what that truth is. To have that truth condensed onto a smaller and smaller spoon until you don't even realize you're being spoonfed at all is the ideal.
"I'm too old to care if what I say is true" what age do I get to just start saying stuff and act like other people are the problem when they call me out on pulling shit out of my ass and presenting it as fact?
Well, back in my 20s a coworker forgave me for leaning Democrat because "if you're a Republican in your 20s you have no heart. If you're a Democrat in your 30s you have no brain."
So, I'd say never. Reality matters at all ages. Well, until you have deep dementia. At that point, enjoy the invisible angels that help you use the restroom. You need all the help you can get. (Source: my mom on the occasions of caring for my grandmother)
Yes, capitalism bad, but uhhhhh
OK boomer
Citation [21]"Johnny Appleseed, Orchardist," prepared by the staff of the Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen Couth, November 1952, page 26
Here, I took the trouble for you. He was not, by any accounts, a good business man.
Please avoid spreading disinformation. This isn't facebook.
What's the goal here? Agitate people on line for fun?
You're not arguing in good faith. You tell people that you are in your sixties and disabled, as if that's excuse for your behavior. You add no context or sources. What're you looking to get out of engaging in a public forum? What does lemmy.world get you that Facebook does not?
Well hey, as a wise person once said:
Good citation. That guy is a genius.
He's also taking enough gabbapentin to stun a horse so his memory isn't super great.
Good cook though.
This is a dumb take.
popcorn
If it smells like shit in one place, itβs probably shit. If it smells like shit everywhere, itβs time to check your shoe.
I thought he made his name by basically being a consultant and helping others plant their trees. The law at the time was you had to grow X number of apple trees and the land was yours. That was because apple trees take multiple years to grow so it proved you were taking care of the land for multiple years.
Yeah, Appleseed would generally move ahead of pioneers and start nurseries on land he thought would be settled. It wasn't some land shakedown scam like the original comment is implying; it was a very useful service that Appleseed would even forego payment for to those who couldn't afford it. Apples were a dietary staple on the frontier, often used for bartering, and sometimes, as you said, you even legally needed an orchard.
Well it was useful for the pioneers, however you have to acknowledge the massive genocide that was committed to make that land "available" to those same "pioneers".
Apples were a dietary staple in so much as they could be brewed into cider and the resulting mash was then used to bulk up food stocks as feed for invasive farm animals.
Your comments don't seem to address any of this. Why is that?
Because that's not at all what the original comment was about. Why am I expected to offer up a treatise on the consequences of apples on the American frontier in order to debunk someone purporting β unsubstantiated and evidently with no regard for the truth β that Appleseed was running "a land grab scam based on the laws of the time"?
Edit: I guess since the original comment mentioned it, I could mention the obvious that, no shit, this was stolen land just like effectively every parcel of US land. But what good does this do our discussion of Appleseed's character as an alleged scam artist? It's generally understood that Appleseed had a very good relationship with the Native Americans he encountered, and yes, sometimes you can be an overall well-meaning person while advancing a deeply unethical system.
Thank you for the further context. The original tone of the comment I replied to could have been construed as support.
"Consulatant": "Hey guys here's a way to lay claim to government land taken from the natives. Just plant a bunch of crabapple seeds like I did and you can claim to be "working the land", too."
I'm not buying any good intentions here, sorry.
Did I say good intentions? Consultants get paid for their work.
And I'm sure you think this means something.
There are no good capitalists comrade.
Cool story bro
Dude, who knows where I saw it but Honest Opinion says he's a useful idiot and you're saying he's a successful businessman who bought land, completely ignoring the whole homestead laws of the day.
I'm too old and cynical to buy "he was a good person" in the US during that time frame. Sorry, not gonna happen.