this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2026
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Today I Learned

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[–] kyonshi@piefed.social 2 points 1 hour ago (3 children)

Which is how you got both Theresa May and the lettuce lady.

In between you had Johnson to lower the bar even further. Buy May was basically handed a flaming bag of shit when Cameron noped out of the mess he created, and she had no chance of ever making it work the way people wanted it anyway. Mind you, while I think she was generally competent, she definitely failed to see she was signing up as the fall guy for this whole debacle.

[–] resipsaloquitur@lemmy.cafe 2 points 1 hour ago

Uhhh… are you defending Liz Truss?

[–] spacesatan@lazysoci.al 1 points 1 hour ago

Truss is a bad example of this because she actively chose to dive off the cliff.

[–] Eric@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 hour ago

Kamala Harris as well

[–] resipsaloquitur@lemmy.cafe 1 points 1 hour ago

Are these people not allowed to say no to holding the bag?

[–] manxu@piefed.social 25 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

I wonder how much of it is specifically giving power to women and minorities at the moment of failure vs there simply not being any white men available to take the helm when the ship is beginning to sink.

Sort of like when in the Middle Ages, the main way for a woman to rule a country was for all males in the line of succession to have died. See Elizabeth I.

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 22 minutes ago* (last edited 21 minutes ago)

The Old Boys Network protects its members, and does include giving them a friendly warning that something is a hot potato or poisened apple.

Once they all self-exclude for that reason, all that's left is outsiders.

Mind you, the Old Boys Network is not a Men's Network, it's a "People From Very Specific Socio-Economic Origins" Network which for historical reasons is still mostly made up of males.

In practice that means the above mentioned "outsiders" aren't just women, they're also men from less priviledged backgrounds (which commonly includes immigrant minorities and at least their 1st generation descendants in the host country).

So yeah, people not in the "right" (having attended the right expensive schools, going to the right rich people get togethers, having upper class old-weath parents) social circles get given the top jobs only when none of the "proper" people want them.

[–] jj4211@lemmy.world 15 points 5 hours ago

An example I can think of is IBM.

In 2010, the CEO proclaimed an earnings target for 2015 based on nothing at all. There was no plan or reasonable expectation, just a flashy number. Investors ate it up and stock went up. No shortage of white men eager to be at the helm of a company that seemed to be on top of the world.

He promptly left the company and handed it over to a woman. As one could predict, a hollow wish about earnings without an actual plan failed to actually deliver. To a lot of folks who understood the nuance, they called it from the moment he said it.

However, the news coverage was basically that she failed to execute on his "plan".

Now she wasn't amazing leadership or anything, but neither was he. However he got to be celebrated as a strong leader mostly on the back of hollow promises and she got to be blamed for the fact it was hollow.

I suppose I can't prove that it was because she was a woman that she got to be the fall person, but I am at least sure they could have found a willing white dude to be the fall guy at least.

[–] Zer0_F0x@lemmy.world 71 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Dr. Lisa Su is a nice example, was appointed CEO when AMD was at the brink of collapse and she aced it

[–] Cossty@lemmy.world 32 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

And now she is Trump's bootlicker. Just like her cousin with NVIDIA.

CEOs are not our friends. There are no exceptions.

[–] hansolo@lemmy.today 66 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

The Onion headline after Obama was elected in 2008 as the economy was starting to fall apart:

Black Man Given Nation's Worst Job

[–] Eyekaytee@aussie.zone 8 points 11 hours ago

Couldn't Biden have argued the same as his was during Covid and he was trying to clean up after Fuckface?

Seems like Chrimas1 was spot on 8 years ago:

Criticism section

This whole theory seems to be an agglomeration of anectodal and/or cherry-picked evidence. Definitely needs a criticism section. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Chrimas1 (talk • contribs) 09:07, 16 February 2018 (UTC)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Glass_cliff#Criticism_section

[–] hakase@lemmy.zip 57 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Chairman Pao being brought on to take the fall for accelerating Reddit's downfall.

[–] WYLD_STALLYNS@lemmy.dbzer0.com 37 points 10 hours ago

We all know it’s spez the cat fuckers fault. That’s not to mention he sucked up to Elon Musk like a kappa on a butthole.

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 28 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (1 children)

I noticed this! I've never heard of this before, but I swear, I kept seeing women get roles on doomed ships within companies. Like the Twitter CEO, or Xbox head, of the top of my head.

[–] myrmidex@belgae.social 3 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (2 children)

Ursula von der Leyen won that race in my mind. It does count for politics too, right?

[–] Quokka@quokk.au 3 points 5 hours ago

Theresa May would count for sure as well.

[–] raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world 7 points 6 hours ago

That one is not a women though, but a soulless psychopath corporate drone.

[–] ToffeeIsForClosers@piefed.ca 24 points 11 hours ago

Right Honourable Kim Campbell, first and only female Prime Minister of Canada for all of just over four months after PM Brian Mulroney tanked his Progressive Conservative Party.

[–] Cris_Citrus@piefed.zip 4 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

Huh... That happened in north American league of legends with the LCS director previous to thw current one.

Though it feels like a bit more than just a glass cliff kinda situation, we got a woman LCS director at a time when riot kept making absolutely shit decisions that everyone hated, and then they made a really shitty decision from over her head, if I remember right it later came out she had just gone on vacation or something, and they just let it seem like it was her decision.

She did not stay director... Which, frankly good for her 😅. I feel like I'm gonna see this everywhere now

[–] maegul@lemmy.ml 15 points 11 hours ago

Yep, and now you will see it everywhere.

And it’s quite insidious too. What’s the woman to do when offered such a position, even if the dynamic is known and Crystal clear?!

[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 8 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

See Xbox. Also, Byron Allen got Colbert's time slot.

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 13 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

That's not the same thing. Colbert didn't tank the timeslot. He was the leader in ratings consistantly in his timeslot. All they had to do was NOT cancel the #1 in late night.

I'm less clear about the Xbox situation.

[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago

Everyone was mad at them for firing Colbert, so they aren't going to watch whoever replaces him. They know that, so they gave the slot to Byron.

[–] gandalf_der_12te@feddit.org 0 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

this is neither a secret nor news. it is well known they hand over leadership to someone who "takes the fall". the company goes down, they can say they did everything right but the new captain fucked everything up.

[–] banause@feddit.org 34 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

This community is called TIL not today I uncovered a big mystery.

[–] Eyekaytee@aussie.zone 0 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

This looks like a joke article?

[–] paraphrand@lemmy.world 2 points 7 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Eyekaytee@aussie.zone -2 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (1 children)

definitely is, the evidence is so weak, Obama elected after the 2008 financial crash as evidence... that's like Bush elected after the dot com bubble burst... or not because it doesn't fit this weak arse narrative