# Need suggestions for my "Most Evil Corps in History" game **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 28, 2022, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-suggestions-for-my-most-evil-corps-in-history-game/963611 "2022-04-28T14:15:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![The\_Librarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_librarian/32/402_2.png) [@The\_Librarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Librarian)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2022, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-suggestions-for-my-most-evil-corps-in-history-game/963611/21 "2022-04-28T18:43:19Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > fine. Portugal and Spain moved a lot of slaves, let’s see what entities were responsible… The WIC. (West Indische Compagnie) So successful that the word “Company” comes from there. (Or their sister the VOC “Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie” - the first “modern” corporation.) ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2022, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-suggestions-for-my-most-evil-corps-in-history-game/963611/22 "2022-04-28T18:43:29Z")
Rupert Murdoch’s entire business empire, including Fox Corp, News Corp, Sky, and whatever else he owns. A propaganda machine that churns out constant lies, that has assisted in the election of some of the worst people ever to lead a supposed democracy. edit - on review, I see you already have News Corp. But Fox Corp is a separate company, as far as I understand, and should have a separate entry. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2022, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-suggestions-for-my-most-evil-corps-in-history-game/963611/23 "2022-04-28T18:53:11Z")
Dude, Bayer… they now own the company formerly known as Monsanto, and their Nazi activities are well known. But also [this fucked up stuff](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contaminated_haemophilia_blood_products). Does the Congo Free State count as a corporation, I’m not sure. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2022, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-suggestions-for-my-most-evil-corps-in-history-game/963611/24 "2022-04-28T19:01:58Z")
Yeah, that’s tough. Do I let Monsanto and Bayer duke it out side-by-side, let the most evil win? Or do I create a SuperEvil corporation by putting it in the _current_ formation? A Bayer-Monsanto 1-2 punch is almost Tysonesque… It’s the opposite of Standard Oil, isn’t it? That one company includes Exxon, Mobile, Chevron, Amoco, and others. I kind of want to go with the historical play, with the companies listed being in (roughly) their form when they were most powerful and evil. Bayer will be in the next published list… as will Monsanto. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2022, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-suggestions-for-my-most-evil-corps-in-history-game/963611/25 "2022-04-28T19:11:17Z")
Yeah, **JohnT** ’s list is notably missing any health insurance companies. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2022, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-suggestions-for-my-most-evil-corps-in-history-game/963611/26 "2022-04-28T19:58:35Z")
Well, there was the [Dutch East India Company](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_East_India_Company) as well. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2022, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-suggestions-for-my-most-evil-corps-in-history-game/963611/27 "2022-04-28T20:30:31Z")
Latest list: | Seed | Resource Extraction | Finance and Tech | Industrials | Miscellaneous | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | Standard Oil | Goldman Sachs | Farben | East India Company | | 2 | United Fruit | Microsoft | Dow Chemical | Nestle | | 3 | De Beers | Google | Halliburton | Philip Morris | | 4 | Monsanto | Apple | Pfizer | WalMart | | 5 | British Petroleum | Facebook | Cargill | News Corp/Fox Corp | | 6 | Texaco | Amazon | Koch Industries | Purdue Pharmaceutical | | 7 | Union Carbide | JP Morgan Chase | General Motors | Royal African Company | | 8 | Anglo American South Africa Ltd | ATT | Deutsche Wirtschaftsbetriebe | Franklin and Armfield | | 9 | Tata Steel | Drexel-Burnham Lambert | Colt’s Manufacturing Company | Chemie Grünenthal | | 10 | | | US Steel | Dutch West India Company | | 11 | | | Monsanto | Enron | | 12 | | | Bayer | | Tata Steel owns a shitload of absolutely horrible mines in India: > **[sukinda chromite mine: Latest News & Videos, Photos about sukinda...](https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/topic/sukinda-chromite-mine)** > > sukinda chromite mine Latest Breaking News, Pictures, Videos, and Special Reports from The Economic Times. sukinda chromite mine Blogs, Comments and Archive News on Economictimes.com AASF poisoned a town in Zambia with their open pit _ **lead mine** _ [Zambia: Tackle Lead Poisoning at Former Mine | Human Rights Watch](https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/07/27/zambia-tackle-lead-poisoning-former-mine#) Bayer and Enron have made the list as well. Keep 'em coming! ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2022, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-suggestions-for-my-most-evil-corps-in-history-game/963611/28 "2022-04-28T20:43:09Z")
People aren’t fond of Uber and their business practices. Taxi drivers and taxi companies, municipalities, people who work/worked for them and riders with bad experiences. They seem to fit as much as Amazon, who, like Uber, “disrupted” the scene and still has tons of customers but they have plenty of enemies. What about Theranos? They never really made it as a company but they managed to get in a whole heap of trouble as a company! ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2022, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-suggestions-for-my-most-evil-corps-in-history-game/963611/29 "2022-04-28T21:14:47Z")
> [@BippityBoppityBoo](#): > > Need an Insurance Company category~my first nominee? Blue Cross/Blue Shield > > Need a Healthcare category~Kaiser comes to mind. Granted the crossover in evil between Healthcare and Insurance becomes a mess. > > I know Wells Fargo Bank did a lot of damage to average customers recently in the US. > > Hudson Bay Trading Company in Canada. Lots of genocide and cultural annihilation there. Missed this post, some good suggestions, look for em on the next update. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Librarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_librarian/32/402_2.png) [@The\_Librarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Librarian)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2022, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-suggestions-for-my-most-evil-corps-in-history-game/963611/30 "2022-04-28T21:18:18Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > What about Theranos? Pretty despicable folks, thankfully they do not exist long enough to get up to the level of mischief like some of the other contestants managed in a couple of centuries. Uber also seems pretty tame in a larger framework where companies poisoned whole ecosystems or/and literally enslaved 100,000s of people. ---
**Author:** ![SunUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SunUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunUp)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2022, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-suggestions-for-my-most-evil-corps-in-history-game/963611/31 "2022-04-28T21:21:18Z")
A couple more entries for “Resource Extraction”: Rio Tinto - they mine just about anything under the earth’s surface, and aren’t good at cleaning up their messes. Phelps Dodge (now part of Freeport McMoran) - The Bisbee Deportation and the Arizona copper mine strike of 1983. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Librarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_librarian/32/402_2.png) [@The\_Librarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Librarian)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2022, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-suggestions-for-my-most-evil-corps-in-history-game/963611/32 "2022-04-28T21:29:41Z")
The lightbulb cartel really deserves an honorable mention. They were so fucking brazen they levied fines on their members for bulbs that lasted too long. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2022, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-suggestions-for-my-most-evil-corps-in-history-game/963611/33 "2022-04-28T21:32:19Z")
[IG Farben](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IG_Farben), the company that made Zyklon B for the Nazis. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2022, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-suggestions-for-my-most-evil-corps-in-history-game/963611/34 "2022-04-29T00:16:34Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Does the Congo Free State count as a corporation, I’m not sure. I don’t think so. Wasn’t it the personal property of the King of the Belgians? And maybe I’m missing something. Why is General Motors on that list? ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2022, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-suggestions-for-my-most-evil-corps-in-history-game/963611/35 "2022-04-29T00:21:44Z")
The Corvair, anti-union activities, following and harrassing Nader. [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nader\_v.\_General\_Motors\_Corp](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nader_v._General_Motors_Corp). ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2022, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-suggestions-for-my-most-evil-corps-in-history-game/963611/36 "2022-04-29T00:24:47Z")
And that’s going up against Union Carbide and how it killed all of those people in Bhopal? I know who I’m placing my bet on. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2022, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-suggestions-for-my-most-evil-corps-in-history-game/963611/37 "2022-04-29T00:38:43Z")
> [@SunUp](#): > > Phelps Dodge (now part of Freeport McMoran) - The Bisbee Deportation and the Arizona copper mine strike of 1983. That reminds me of the strike against the [Colorado Fuel and Iron Company](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/rockefellers-ludlow/) in 1913. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2022, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-suggestions-for-my-most-evil-corps-in-history-game/963611/38 "2022-04-29T00:44:29Z")
I nominate the [Colorado Fuel & Iron Company](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow_Massacre). ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2022, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-suggestions-for-my-most-evil-corps-in-history-game/963611/39 "2022-12-10T07:01:49Z")
I was looking at my [Freakouts of the Right](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freakouts-of-the-right/963631/188) list and noticed that I had this Evil Corps list on the same Excel file, different worksheet. So let’s wrap this up. Worked on it a bit tonight, and here is what I have: 4 categories, 12 companies per category, 48 companies in total. I have zero problem admitting (a) there is an American bias to this list, (b) there is a “popularity” and recency bias to this list, and (c) there was a need for “representation selection” - for example, I could have put half of the American health insurance industry on this list, but settled for Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Same goes for corps such as McDonald’s, Walmart, etc. Tell me what you think, please do your own Googling if you don’t know a company (I’ll put the effort to do links in the contest thread), and if you have any _replacements_, let me know who you’re replacing and with whom, with an eye to the three things listed above: If you want to remove the one representative of the American fast food industry for another company, you’d better make a good case as to why. I have “seeds”, but this list is not ranked according to such. And “seeds” will just be my opinion, nothing more. | Seed | Resource Extraction | Finance and Tech | Industrials | Miscellaneous | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | Standard Oil (Exxon/Mobil/Chevron/etc) | Goldman Sachs | Farben | British East India Company | | 2 | United Fruit | Microsoft | Dow Chemical | Nestle | | 3 | De Beers | Google | Halliburton | Philip Morris | | 4 | Monsanto | Apple | Pfizer | WalMart | | 5 | British Petroleum | Facebook | Cargill | News Corp/Fox Corp | | 6 | Texaco | Amazon | Koch Industries | Purdue Pharmaceutical | | 7 | Union Carbide | JP Morgan Chase | General Motors | Royal African Company | | 8 | Anglo American South Africa Ltd | ATT | Deutsche Wirtschaftsbetriebe | Disney | | 9 | Tata Steel | Drexel-Burnham Lambert | Colt’s Manufacturing Company | Amway | | 10 | Aramco (Saudi Arabia oil co) | Black Rock | US Steel | Dutch West India Company | | 11 | Syncrude (Albertan Oil Sands) | Comcast | Monsanto | Enron | | 12 | Glencore PLC (current largest mining co) | Blue Cross/Blue Shield | Bayer | McDonalds | ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2022, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-suggestions-for-my-most-evil-corps-in-history-game/963611/40 "2022-12-10T07:08:32Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Does the Congo Free State count as a corporation, I’m not sure. Abir absolutely, positively makes the list of most evil. > **[Abir Congo Company](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abir_Congo_Company)** > > The Abir Congo Company (founded as the Anglo-Belgian India Rubber Company and later known as the Compagnie du Congo Belge) was a company that exploited natural rubber in the Congo Free State, the private property of King Leopold II of Belgium. The company was founded with British and Belgian capital and was based in Belgium. By 1898 there were no longer any British shareholders and the Anglo-Belgian India Rubber Company changed its name to the Abir Congo Company and changed its residence for ... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-suggestions-for-my-most-evil-corps-in-history-game/963611.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-suggestions-for-my-most-evil-corps-in-history-game/963611.md?page=3)