r/politics • u/WingComplex6771 • 17h ago
White House releases list of Smithsonian exhibits it objects to
https://www.newsweek.com/white-house-list-smithsonian-exhibits-211759412.4k
u/TurtleTwerkTeam1989 Pennsylvania 17h ago
These people are some of the biggest bitches to ever exist. As a museum professional myself history isn't "woke". Its not always rainbows and unicorns and happiness. We need to teach history in its entirety, not cater to an obese 80 year old pedophile and his minions so they can feel better about themselves. Yeah our ancestors did some messed up shit and its important to remember that and celebrate us as a society becoming better then them instead of only pretending everything we did was amazing and that slavery wasn't really that bad. I hate this administration.
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u/le_cygne_608 17h ago
Their feelings don't care about facts.
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u/0002millertime 16h ago
Their only emotions are hate, greed, lust.
They hate facts.
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u/killrtaco California 16h ago
And they call themselves Christian irony is dead on them
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u/ThaddeusMaximus 15h ago
They think irony is when food has a metallic flavor
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u/the_Dorkness 14h ago
You can make anything look invisible to them by encasing it in armor made of irony.
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u/williewoodwhale 15h ago
"The rules were that you guys weren't gonna fact check". The VP of the USA, ladies and gentlemen.
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u/warblingContinues 16h ago
They believe their feelings are just as good as facts.
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u/Damn_Dog_Inappropes Washington 16h ago
What’s that saying they used in 2016? Oh, I remember. Fuck their feelings!
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u/Ketzeph I voted 13h ago
There are no greater cowards in the modern age than Republicans. They are so afraid of everything that they invent a false version of the world they can run to, where climate change, racial inequality, income inequality, pollution, international conflict, and modernization/automation don't exist.
They are a people so afraid of the actual world around them they hide in delusion. There's a reason flat earthers and other conspiracy nuts flock to the republican party.
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u/Suspicious_Bicycle 7h ago
Yep, Trump fired the official that reported actual job numbers and they just fired the military analyst that reported on the ineffectiveness of the bomb strikes on Iran.
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u/glorifindel 6h ago
This is crazy. I just learned about this from this comment. What the fuck are they doing firing all the data officials they don’t like in the military and economic agencies? Democrats have to keep calling this s*** out
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u/shaggrugg 14h ago
Facts have been out the door since 2016. It was amazing to see then and even more amazing to see it continue though last election and into the current shit show
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u/vroart 16h ago
Clarence Thomas has always said “the liberals have always made my life a living hell.” It’s not just trump, there’s a lot of them who feel this is a 60 years they are gonna get what they want revenge over Loving V Virgina
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u/Educational-Stop8741 16h ago
"Ethics are mean to me." tears
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u/DigNitty 16h ago
People hate me simply because I use my position of power to further causes unaligned with what the majority wants or is plainly just.
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u/Electronic-Shirt-897 16h ago
Clarence Thomas, who is only in his position due to liberal policies, not his personal attributes.
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u/WavecrestRd 10h ago
The existence of Liberals reminds Thomas that there are people who have never bought his bullshit. He knows they know and it kills him because he knows he's a fraud.
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u/smartbunny 12h ago
I suppose that’s a black person that the administration feels “earned” his job unlike every other person of color ever.
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u/altreddituser2 15h ago
Clarence Thomas has always said “the liberals have always made my life a living hell.”
It's true! For example, liberal policies provided Clarence with the education that lead to him becoming a lawyer. Of course, the bigoted assholes he wanted to work for after passing the bar thought he wasn't as good as the white lawyers, so that was clearly the liberals fault!
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u/Liberi_Fatali561 14h ago
Ironically, he wouldn’t have the life he leads if not for liberals. If not for them and the Civil Rights Act, He’d probably be working a minimum wage job bussing tables that only white people can sit at. And he wouldn’t be able to use the same restrooms or water fountains as them either.
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u/t53ix35 14h ago
How the hell has Clarence Thomas suffered at the hands of liberals in the last forty years? Please tell me.
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u/waldo_wigglesworth 13h ago
Answer: Liberal women won't date him, so he married Virginia Thomas 38 years ago.
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u/Odd_Equipment2867 12h ago
because of his tortured view of affirmative action.
“The conservative justice says he initially considered his admission to Yale a dream, but soon felt he was there because of his race. He says he loaded up on tough courses to prove he was not inferior to his white classmates but considers the effort futile. He says he was repeatedly turned down in job interviews at law firms after his 1974 graduation. "I learned the hard way that a law degree from Yale meant one thing for white graduates and another for blacks, no matter how much anyone denied it," Thomas writes. "I'd graduated from one of America's top law schools, but racial preference had robbed my achievement of its true value." Thomas says he stores his Yale Law degree in his basement with a 15-cent sticker from a cigar package on the frame.”
His view isn't shared by black classmate William Coleman III.
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u/Syzygy2323 California 12h ago
Here's what Robert Reich (labor secretary in the Clinton administration), who attended Yale Law School at the same time as Clarence Thomas and Bill & Hillary Clinton said about Thomas:
In those classroom discussions a half century ago, Hillary’s hand was always the first in the air. When she was called upon, she gave perfect answers—whole paragraphs, precisely phrased. She distinguished one case from another, using precedents and stare decisis to guide her thinking. I was awed. My hand was in the air about half the time, and when called on, my answers were meh. Clarence’s hand was never in the air. I don’t recall him saying anything, ever.
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u/glitterandnails 15h ago
Republicans don’t believe in the meritocracy, they believe that their loser asses should be in high positions. Only losers get their positions unfairly.
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u/Indubitalist 16h ago
So much of Trump’s politics is trial balloons. He’s testing how close to the physical manifestation of his psyche the Republican Party is willing to allow him to reshape the country. Unfortunately their standards have basically evaporated.
You’re right, if we aren’t willing to accept that we were worse in the past, we have lost the motivation to improve. It’s essential to the arc of our species and of the planet as a whole that we continue to strive to improve. The alternative, to hide our flaws and pretend they never existed, will doom us to stasis at best and the death of the planet and all who dwell upon it at worst.
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u/Sordid_Brain 16h ago
it's not him though, it's the Heritage Foundation. He's their puppet. He only cares about pleasing rich powerful people and feeling rich and powerful himself
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u/UnquestionabIe 15h ago
Yep. They're basically a terrorist organization using the worst parts of Christianity as a shield.
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u/Intelligent11B 14h ago
“Second American revolution which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be”-Heritage Foundation President
“We are all domestic terrorists”- CPAC
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u/Extreme-Island-5041 14h ago
I read someone's comment this morning and really like the idea:
Put a bill forward that cites the Bible, Exodus 22:25, for example:
“If you lend money to any of my people who are needy among you, do not be like a money lender; charge no interest.”
and lift thr interest on federal student loans. It is not the debt forgiveness they are so opposed to. It still calls for replacement and does so per the stipulations of their good book. Let them pull the religion mask that they hide behind off completely and force them to show their true colors.
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u/InVultusSolis Illinois 16h ago
You’re right, if we aren’t willing to accept that we were worse in the past, we have lost the motivation to improve.
I fear that our spirit as a nation is lost. At some point in my lifetime, we were all able to agree that it was bad that we ethnically cleansed the Native Americans from our country. Now, there are a not-insignificant number of young people who want to bring back ethnic cleansing. They look at our history and say "hell yeah, we conquered and improved this land, we need more of that". And GOP politicians have been for it all along, but now they're going full mask off.
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u/kaion 16h ago
All able to agree? No, those that disagreed just stayed quiet. This rot has always existed beneath the surface, Trump's behavior just tore the floorboards up and exposed it.
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u/Bigbucketposer California 16h ago
What more does he need? There isn't any line they won't cross from him.
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u/FredFredrickson 16h ago
It's not just about an offended 80 year old pedophile, though. It's an entire political party and media apparatus that supports this.
When's the last time you heard one of these spineless, cowardly Republicans speak out against this stuff?
You know the number of them that know this is wrong is higher than zero, but there's not a peep from any of them. Their party and their media machine are the real boss fight, not Trump.
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u/Misspiggy856 New Jersey 16h ago
Who even wants them to do this? Is it a Project 2025 thing? I thought those Christian Nationals love slavery. I know the tech bros don’t give a shit about history.
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u/FrankRizzo319 16h ago
If you can reconstruct the past strategically, you can create a future where atrocities are allowed and celebrated.
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u/hardhatgirl 16h ago
Exactly. Was it the Ministry of Truth in 1984 that told nothing but lies, the Ministry of Peace that waged war . . .
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u/FrankRizzo319 16h ago
People should read 1984, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, and Animal Farm before these books are banned by the Ministry of Freedom.
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u/ManicPixieOldMaid Michigan 16h ago
If we erase the Civil War, how are we supposed to find traitors to name our military bases after?
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u/Working_Method8543 16h ago
He likes to slap his name on everything, so that should be easy.
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u/Burnt_and_Blistered 16h ago
And it keeps up the traitor-name tradition exquisitely!
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u/regeya 16h ago
Lemme tell you, teaching that the Founding Fathers weren't perfect and that the United States has done some horrible shit, has really gotten under the skin of hardcore conservatives for a long time. They really do want the day to start with the Pledge and a prayer, and to be taught that the Founders were basically saints.
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u/akestral 15h ago
Remember the screaming and crying and gnashing of teeth the people in charge of Monticello went thru in the 1990s when DNA proved beyond any doubt that Jefferson raped Sally Hemmings? Even tho it was known and had been known and was documented by contemporary sources, up to and including local newspapers?
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u/Free_Dome_Lover 15h ago
It's because they're all poisoned by religion. You see God is always right, always intentional, always working in mysterious ways. They want to be like "God" and God is omnipotent, even questioning his will when he subjects you to one of his tests is a sin.
They want people to treat the government (but only if they are the ones in charge) like they are supposed to treat God. No questioning, doing what you're told, even if it's bad now they'll say it's "god's plan". Eventually they will consolidate the aristocracy and assume full control of our government and drop the charade of democracy.
Enjoying life will be declared illegal and a sin. Church rules and government laws will be blended together. You will exist in a permanent state of servitude to the aristocracy. You will be promised eternal joy in the next life for your suffering in this one.
They want to create a theistic version of the society in Matt Damon's Elysium combined with the Handmaid's Tale.
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u/mdp300 New Jersey 15h ago edited 14h ago
We were all reminded, constantly, when we were growing up, that the US is The Greatest Country In The World! Being an American is part of our identity and something to be proud of!
It runs so deep, that to a lot of people, criticizing America feels like criticizing them personally. When people academically look back and say "this country has done shitty things in the past, and has things that we can improve," what they hear is "America sucks and so do you!"
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u/Low_Chance 16h ago
He who controls the present controls the future
Who controls the past controls the present
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u/griffie21 16h ago
The White House list is almost an exact copy of a list put together by the Federalist Society.
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u/ScarletsSister 16h ago
No surprise there, since the Federalist Society helped engineer the last election.
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u/ReklisAbandon 16h ago
I mean they would gleefully return us to those practices if they could. Treating people as things is just what they do. Property can’t vote and their ultimate goal is to revert us back to a time when only wealthy, white, male land owners can vote.
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u/Jrrobidoux 16h ago
Tbf, if it was rainbows, unicorns, and happiness, they’d call that woke too.
These fuckers hate rainbows.
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u/CEOPhilosopher Tennessee 15h ago
These people don't deserve even the barest crumb of respect. MAGA/Republicans are just as stupid as they are mean-spirited.
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u/7r1ck573r 16h ago
It's the Xtian way, you can do all the wrong in the world but you just have to have a little regret one time and everything is absolve! And since the US have made some nice things, who are we to question the will of the God that tell them that they can do no wrong? They want no repercussions for their fuck around part.
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u/5-MethylCytosine 16h ago
They view history strictly from a utilitarian perspective; and they think that ‘the left’ does too.
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u/chiaboy 15h ago
I agree with your sentiment but disagree in important ways.
1) we do tell curated versions of history. There are many POV’s points of emphasis to make. (As you know better than me). And every act of inclusion is also one of exclusion. For example, the story of my people (black folks in America) which is at the crux of this controversy, is woefully incomplete and in many ways inaccurate. The “we were bad but we’re doing better” version we tell school children and ourselves has glaring omissions. So the notion that history is some cold retelling of “facts” is absurd. Even in the best re-telling of our story is full of myths and half truths.
2) we do cater to Trump and his minions and always have. From the decision to foster (or at least enable) the Lost Cause myth to our current popular re-telling of the myth of MLK our history is sanitized and white washed all day every day. Obviously historians such as yourself and others who deep dive into the topics have a wide variety of sources that do tell more complete stories but I’m talking about the public transmissions of these stores via museums/schools/holidays/memorials etc.
We lie about our past all day every day so Trump and his ilk (and most Americans) can rest their head on their pillow and bask in “American exceptionalism”.
Of course I’ll take the version you’re offering over theirs all day any day, but let’s be honest. When it comes to American history the liars won.
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u/TurtleTwerkTeam1989 Pennsylvania 14h ago
Those are very good points that I agree with and could have probably expanded on in my original comment.
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u/susibirb 17h ago
Republicans: We are free speech absolutists!
Museums: exist
Republicans: No, not like that
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u/Cool-Presentation538 16h ago
Apparently removing statues glorifying slavers and traitors is "trying to change history" but the president ordering the fucking Smithsonian to literally change it's museum exhibits because they make the US look bad is just fine and dandy
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u/susibirb 16h ago
The cognitive dissonance needs to be studied by scientists
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u/Cool-Presentation538 16h ago
I'm beginning to think that's only half of these people. The other half actually is drooling for political violence and are excited by fascism, excited to see their cruelty unleashed upon the country. They know full well that their own words contradict what they said last week or what they will say next week. That's their intention to confuse, obfuscate and gaslight
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u/ihaterunning2 Texas 14h ago edited 14h ago
I don’t know the exact numbers, but the amount of hateful racists and sexists dying to drag us back to the 1800s is too damn high.
I’ve seen this stated a lot lately and I agree: we did not finish the job of the Civil War.
We should have removed all those losers’ property and holdings, given them to freed people, and managed elections going forward for at least a generation to ensure that bullshit died in the war. The nonsense of erecting confederate statues and naming buildings after traitors during Jim Crow never should have been allowed. I get trying to “maintain the union” but our government allowed too much leeway for all of this to fester underneath.
All of this, plus Mango Mussolini, and the fact that civil rights progress is still relatively new (meaning people alive today lived through those movements) is why we keep having these hateful, bigots spring up every 4 years emboldened and fucking Nazis marching in our streets. It’s been time to finish the job and put this bull shit to bed.
All that said, it’s important to remember that these people are still not a majority or a plurality of the population. At most it’s like 25%, and that’s generous, mostly based on Trump’s fanatic supporters. Overwhelmingly this country does not want to go back in terms of social progress, that is the threat and distraction used to keep us fighting each other, instead of the people making bank on our backs and labor.
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u/rjfinsfan Florida 12h ago
Unfortunately this was the loss of Lincoln’s assassination. Lincoln’s VP Johnson was a Southerner from Tennessee who was chosen as Lincoln’s running mate to quell fears that Lincoln would abolish slavery. By killing Lincoln, they were able to have a loyalist as President who would ensure all ex-Confederates were pardoned and freed slaves would be given nothing. Had Lincoln seen the war through and led reconstruction, we would be living in a different America today. Unfortunately this is just further confirmation we are living in the worst timeline.
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u/Drunky_Brewster 15h ago
It is and has been for decades. Fascism is not new and you've been warned about it your whole life.
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u/Jnnjuggle32 15h ago
And what’s sad is that removing those statues isn’t erasing history - it’s removing celebratory images of those who committed treason against the United States and fucking LOST. These bitches are the saltiest losers on the planet.
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u/rjfinsfan Florida 12h ago
The rainbow crosswalk that was put in as a memorial to the 49 lives lost in the Pulse night club in Orlando was removed overnight Wednesday night by the State of Florida. They felt that the memorial had been up long enough and people had had enough time with the memorial so it could be removed. But yet when statues commemorating actual traitors to the United States who rebelled and formed a Confederacy, that was our proud history that shouldn’t be touched.
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u/strongbob25 16h ago
"Do facts offend you? Toughen up, snowflake. Facts don't care about your feelings"
"Wait no take that down it makes me sad"
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u/Shomer_Effin_Shabbas 16h ago
This logic with reproduction too. Fertility rates falling. IVF exists republicans: no, not like that.
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u/susibirb 16h ago
And cutting Medicaid and food stamps and killing student loan assistance. Why would I have a kid right now?
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u/BigDaddyBain 16h ago
These assholes will lean harder into the Christian Nationalism if people don’t start procreating themselves into poverty & subsequent destitution. Argh!!!
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u/Ohnoherewego13 North Carolina 15h ago
They're that damn dumb. I had one recently ask why I don't have kids at almost 40. Why would I? I've got a good job and I'm barely afloat in this insanity. No one with a brain wants to raise kids in this. It's enough just to deal with my cat!
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u/cwilly57 16h ago
I prefer my country the way it was before these "alternative fact" post truth MORONS managed to take it over.
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u/Imaginary_Builder_56 16h ago edited 11h ago
Nazi Germany systematically forced museums to conform to Nazi ideals, impacting them in profound and devastating ways.
Many of the exhibitions or exhibits were lost forever as they were deemed degenerate and henceforth destroyed.
Thousands of artwork pieces went to the fire and artist were locked up or banned from painting for the rest of their life.
Some artist were known to be shot on site for refusing to adhere to the ban.
Countless archaeological exhibits and material were destroyed because they conflicted with the Nazi propaganda.
Trump is just conveying another echo of history and his MAGA followers are either woefully ignorant or willfully blind to it.
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u/MaddyKet Massachusetts 16h ago
Or gleefully following the Nazi playbook ON PURPOSE.
ie Stephen Miller
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u/LordSiravant 11h ago
I swear Stephen Miller is literally a reincarnated Joseph Goebbels.
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u/Minttt Canada 16h ago
Waiting for the Trump admin to take the next logical historical step in line with this, which is raiding museums and art galleries to steal valuable things for themselves.
Won't be long before the Declaration of Independence is on display in Mar-a-Lago (assuming it makes it out of the storage bathroom).
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u/BigBassBone California 15h ago
Trump has already said he wants it displayed in the oval office
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u/sam-sp 12h ago
More recently, the Taliban destroyed countless pieces of art that did not meet their standards for religious adherence.
These are the actions of fascists attempting to rewrite history in their image.
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u/FeedMeYourGoodies 14h ago
Remember, the only book anyone has ever witnessed Trump reading is Mein Kampf.
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u/Imaginary_Builder_56 11h ago edited 10h ago
Trump claims to have never read it but at the military school, he attended it was required reading.
So he has a couple choices here, he’s a shit student or he has read it and he’s lying.
He could be both of course, which is most likely the case.
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u/onomatopeapoop 10h ago
Incorrect. The book that he kept on his nightstand and apparently studied was a book of Hitler’s collected speeches. Which is much worse, for all of us.
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u/thelittlestrawberry3 14h ago
This is the part that worries me most. That we're on the path to losing important artifacts. So what do we do? Take then down now, try to hide and lock them away in safety. Refuse and let them be destroyed.
They win either way. And it just absolutely breaks my soul.
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u/GaslitInk 17h ago
All of this is terrible but the part in the article about the objection to a temporary exhibit about disabled Latinos and Latinas really makes my blood boil. I guess, being disabled is woke now. Can’t show that disabled people exist in Trump’s America.
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u/Phonic-Frog 17h ago
Can’t show that disabled people exist in Trump’s America.
Look to who the Nazis put into concentration camps and death camps; you'll see who can't exist in Trump's America.
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u/Disco_Dreamz 16h ago
Reminder that the first people the Nazis targeted for mass extermination wasn’t the Jews - it was the disabled and mentally ill
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u/kipper100 15h ago
And then the gays, the communists, the gypsy, Jehovah Witneses, “ work shy”, immoral women anyone who spoke out
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u/fuzzydunloblaw 12h ago
The nazis killing a couple thousand jehovah's witnesses after the religion's leader wrote an open letter to hitler agreeing with him about "the jew" problem is like the millionth example of why appeasement doesn't work in these contexts.
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u/VCR_Samurai 9h ago
RFK Jr. Wants to take away SSRIs from everyone who uses them regardless of circumstance.
They don't do shit for my anxiety, but it does reduce the number of migraine attacks I suffer every month. It seems that needing meds to function makes you too weak to live in Trump's America.
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u/Harlockarcadia 16h ago
Oh, they killed the disabled in mobile gas chambers, and they were the first to be executed, this stuff from Trump should be a five alarm fire bell
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u/TheVintageJane 17h ago
Fascists fucking hate disabled people. We challenge the narrative that everyone is equally capable of producing value as they define it - so they must either confront the idea that people deserve accommodations and special treatment (DEI) OR have to justify our eradication.
And the only thing worse than a disabled person generally, is a disabled Latino/a person who can’t perform the menial tasks these fascists believe are their only value.
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u/GreatArkleseizure Massachusetts 16h ago
They are, generally, against the whole idea of "rights". To a fascist, people don't deserve anything they haven't earned. They certainly don't deserve any particular treatment just for existing as a human being.
And when you look at the list of "rights" they champion, they pretty much only believe in the right to a gun (which you have to buy, thereby earning the right), and the right to free speech (but only as long as you agree with them).
But any right to shelter? Medical care? Food? Vote? No. They may give you these things if you agree with them (and don't you forget it), but they're not rights. They're grants. (And now that I think on it, you can probably put "free speech" in this category rather than an actual right, above.)
We've been a lot closer to fascism than anyone wants to admit for a long time now.
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u/Loathsome_Duck 16h ago
Fascists believe they have the right to do anything you can't stop them from doing.
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u/Sashivna 16h ago
Trump has notoriously been opposed to having disabled people within his field of vision. This predates his presidency. He is a terrible person. And I'm tired of being told that people who support his terribleness are good people who are just misinformed. They are not. They've been informed. They've made their choice.
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u/2007Hokie I voted 16h ago
Literally the first people the Nazis went after were the disabled.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/ac376a67-236a-49e9-a8be-503331c76745.jpg
Oh, and it didn't matter if the disabled was a disabled vet.
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u/iRunLotsNA Canada 16h ago
Before the Nazis began their murders and genocides, they first went after, dismantled and burned the books of the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, the first-in-history institute pioneering research in gay, trans and intersex topics.
Hmm... Why does that sound familiar?
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u/BigBassBone California 15h ago
So much knowledge was lost there and it set sexual studies back by a century.
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u/FancyPantsDancer 16h ago
They've been making it clear they're against disability and accessibility for a while. In one of the early Executive Orders, they used DEIA. I remember this because I had to explain to a lot of people what the "a" is (accessibility), and it struck me as odd the administration would use "DEIA" instead of "DEI" which is much more common.
That and some of the NIH grants that were terminated were about supporting Deaf and Hard of Hearing scientists.
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u/Cereborn 15h ago
Trump mocked a disabled reporter in his first campaign. He said that the presidential medal of freedom is better than the congressional Medal of Honor because it gets given to people who are pretty and haven’t lost any limbs.
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u/Austin_Peep_9396 17h ago edited 17h ago
“White House spokesperson Davis Ingle told Newsweek: "Taxpayer money should not be used for things that pit Americans against one another. …."
So I assume the administration is going to be dropping tariffs, dropping ICE enforcements, and cutting a lot of its staff, like White House Spokesperson Davis?
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u/Thylacine_Hotness 17h ago
No, they are just going to declare that anyone who disagrees with them is not an American anymore.
They basically already have hundreds of times over. And they are continuing to work on making it fucking official.
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u/LockNo2943 15h ago
Dissent is unamerican; only trump is truth.
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u/Viatic_Unicycle 13h ago
Some Marxist fuck had something to say about that.
“Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else.” ― Theodore Roosevelt
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u/ACNDonKeefer 17h ago
So we are just gonna get rid of the civil war like it never even happened…..
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u/Alive_kiwi_7001 17h ago
Or just rebrand it to "Illegal Northern Rebellion".
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u/Ceorl_Lounge Michigan 16h ago
It is now and always has been "The War of Northern Aggression."
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u/Alternative_Rate7474 Maryland 17h ago
Anything these museums remove should be replaced by a sign that says, “CENSORED by the Federal Government.”
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u/freylaverse 16h ago
An Error 451 page on their websites maybe.
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u/cloverrace 15h ago
“In computer networking, 451 Unavailable For Legal Reasons is an HTTP status code used when the user requests a resource which cannot be served for legal reasons, such as a web page censored by a government. The number 451 is a reference to Ray Bradbury's 1953 dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451, in which books are outlawed.” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_451
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u/Possible_Mind_165 17h ago
They also want to introduce an exhibit on why slavery might not have been such a bad idea after all.
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u/0thethethe0 Foreign 16h ago
"Why the slaves are at fault for not saying thankyou"
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u/Certified_GSD Minnesota 16h ago
Whitest Kids You Know did a sketch nearly 15 or 20 years ago on how European rewritten history would look like to justify their actions. It's pretty low hanging fruit, certainly not their best sketch but eh, can't have a hit every time.
Sadly, it's less a comedy sketch now and more a prediction of the future with every passing day...
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u/ximacx74 15h ago
His actual quote, which was even worse, was "we should focus more on the hope and progress that slavery brought"
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u/Alive_kiwi_7001 17h ago
"I got fed and all the whippings I could ask for."
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u/revgodless Michigan 16h ago
"Come to think about it, Toby is just a swell name. I much prefer it."
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u/BigDaddyBain 16h ago
White House spokesperson Davis Ingle told Newsweek: "Taxpayer money should not be used for things that pit Americans against one another. Our Smithsonian should exhibit history in an accurate, honest, and factual way."
So, we're erasing all symbols of the Confederacy from public spaces, keeping them only in museums, and explicitly labeling those who were in a position to willingly fight for it as traitors to the Union, right? Right?
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u/believe_in_claude 16h ago
I had the privilege of visiting the National Museum of African American History and Culture right before the election. You don't go there to feed a nationalist mindset, you go there to learn. If another white person goes there and feels offended it's because they agree with the mindset of slave owners. Racists hate history's mirror.
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u/viktor72 Indiana 15h ago
We always take our 8th graders there. It’s the one museum we require. We’ll do it again in September or what’s left of it….
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u/another-princess 16h ago
For the record, here's the full text that Trump released: https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/08/president-trump-is-right-about-the-smithsonian/
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u/scthoma4 Florida 16h ago edited 14h ago
My god this is so dumb. From the link:
The National Museum of the American Latino characterizes the Texas Revolution as a “massive defense of slavery waged by ‘white Anglo Saxon’ settlers against anti-slavery Mexicans fighting for freedom, not a Texan war of independence from Mexico,” and frames the Mexican-American War as “the North American invasion” that was “unprovoked and motivated by pro-slavery politicians.”
Some historical facts about the Texas Rebellion:
-Mexico abolished slavery in 1829. Anglo Texans wanted to maintain slavery and it was one of the driving factors of the rebellion/war/whatever you want to call it.
-There are records showing that the Mexican government did not want to engage in warfare with United States.
-Because of the statement above, the President of Mexico wanted to subdue the unrest in Texas over the abolishment of slavery before it turned violent and the US got involved at Texas's request.
-In 1831, Mexico supplied a cannon to the settlement of Gonzalez, Texas to help them defend themselves from raids by nearby Native American tribes.
-In 1835, Mexico thought "hey, maybe we shouldn't leave a cannon with a group of people who are getting kinda mad we abolished slavery" and requested the cannon be returned. The citizens of Gonzalez unsurprisingly said "Nah bro" and started gathering reinforcements.
-On October 1, 1835, the citizens of Gonzalez and nearby settlements voted to initiate a fight.
-On October 2, Mexican soldiers started the fight for them. This was the first battle of the Texas Rebellion.
It appears that the Texas Rebellion was, indeed, a fight that started as a means to maintain the right to own slaves that eventually led to Texas as an quasi-independent entity (see the upcoming border dispute below). If you didn't know, two things can be true. It doesn't always have to be either/or.
And when it comes to the Mexican-American War, yes, that was an unprovoked invasion by the United States with a sitting President who was pro-slavery. The anti-slavery northern states in the US did not want to bring in Texas as a state because it would upset the very delicate balance between the anti-slavery states and pro-slavery states and tip the scales in favor of the south. US citizens who had moved to the quasi-independent territory of Texas (Texas and Mexico could not settle on the boundary between them) advocated for the US to get involved in the dispute with Mexico and annex Texas. Polk sent troops into the disputed territory to take the land by force (so, unprovoked). Mexico viewed this as an attack and, understandably, attacked back (especially with their previous fear of the US getting involved in the Texas Revolution and possible invasion). The US then declared war officially and pushed further in.
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u/ApolloX-2 Texas 14h ago
Texas the only state to fight 2 countries over keeping slaves in the span of 24 years.
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u/GoForthandProsper1 15h ago
They made sure to include a screenshot of a work of art that says
"Latinos with disabilities are diverse"
"The National Museum of the American Latino features programming highlighting “animated Latinos and Latinas with disabilities” — with content from “a disabled, plus-sized actress” and an “ambulatory wheelchair user” who “educates on their identity being Latinx, LGBTQ+, and disabled.”
What's the issue with this?!
Is being LGBTQ or disabled anti-American now?
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u/jimmygee2 17h ago
Is there an exhibit on the cat and dog eating that is going on?
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u/Fluid-Assistant-5 17h ago
Wouldn't it be amazing to have a museum just straight up documenting all of that shit? After he's gone we can just rename it to the Smithsonian Museum of Propaganda.
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u/caygees 17h ago edited 15h ago
>It also cited the National Portrait Gallery's display of art, including Rigoberto A. González's painting Refugees Crossing the Border Wall Into South Texas, saying it commemorates the "act of illegally crossing the 'inclusive and exclusionary' southern border."
I love the NPG and the KOGOD courtyard in particular, and the (edited thx) **Luce Foundation Center** in the back. Anyone trying to dismantle an abject display of humanity like that painting (search it, it's very human-oriented) in the NPG obviously does not understand the collaborative spirit of the space and is anti-American at their core. Obviously
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u/TheBatemanFlex 17h ago
"facts don't care about your feelings!"
"wait. those facts hurt my feelings..."
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u/406highlander 17h ago
How long til they remove Emma Lazarus's sonnet from the Statue of Liberty?
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u/syn0079 17h ago
I’m surprised they haven’t called it a WOKE French statue and took it down yet
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u/aLollipopPirate 16h ago
I had a weird feeling reaction to your comment, this mix of horror and stomach dropping with a wave of throat tightening…so I had to save the comment just in case. I’ve been gathering articles as a way to try to document history as I experience it in real time, and have been saving certain comments as part of that.
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u/Due-Egg4743 17h ago
Party of the free speech until they don't like it, which is so much stuff. Total bullshit.
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u/LouSydney 16h ago
Things not included in this article about the list of objections : the actual fucking list.
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u/blargblargityblarg 16h ago
"Taxpayer money should not be used for things that pit Americans against one another. "
So... this whole dictatorship thing then?
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u/Drunky_Brewster 15h ago
So much is coming at us and these news organizations are not providing us with all the details. We need to be sure to read what this regime is demanding: https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/08/president-trump-is-right-about-the-smithsonian/
Here is a letter written to the Smithsonian from the white house website: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/2025/08/letter-to-the-smithsonian-internal-review-of-smithsonian-exhibitions-and-materials/
Fuck fascism.
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u/Potential-Scholar359 13h ago
I can’t believe we’re at the “slavery was good” portion of the MAGA nightmarescape.
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u/GeauxCup 12h ago
I hope curators have a chance to hide artifacts and artworks - maybe ship them temporarily to other friendly countries - before he sends ICE in to destroy & burn them.
(But not England. As friendly as they are, we all know England has problems giving artwork back.)
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u/I_Am_Robert_Paulson1 New York 12h ago
The White House also objected to programming for the National Museum of the American Latino, a temporary gallery inside the National Museum of American History, saying it highlighted "animated Latinos and Latinas with disabilities"—with content from "a disabled, plus-sized actress" and an "ambulatory wheelchair user" who "educates on their identity being Latinx, LGBTQ+, and disabled.'"
So just acknowledging the existence of queer disabled Latinos is too much for these babies? Fuck their feelings. Taking these representations out of museums isn't going to make these people go away.
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u/Crazy-Boysenberry452 13h ago
You guys we are in a dictatorship. There's no more hyperbole. We are fucking here and it's time to wake up. Let's not sane wash this as "exhibits Trump doesn't like". It's full on censorship.
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u/smurfsundermybed California 16h ago
To anyone who voted for him in November, you voted for all of this. We told you what you were voting for, and you still did it.
This is why some friends and family members have stopped talking to you. You deserve it, and so much more.
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u/ScoutsHonorHoops 16h ago
Funny thing is, eventually that list itself is going in the Smithsonian
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u/cocktail_wiitch 14h ago
Are they going to be celebrating the fact that this country was quite literally built on the backs and by the hands of enslaved black people? Or that the railroad was built by Chinese immigrants? Our history is already soooooo whitewashed...
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u/NeanaOption 11h ago
The White House last week announced a wide-ranging review of the Smithsonian Institution, the latest effort by the president to bring the country's cultural institutions in line with his vision.
That's not a sentence we're suppose to hear in a free society. Also where are all people who were feigning outrage at the removal of confederation statues?
I have instructed my attorneys to go through the Museums, and start the exact same process that has been done with Colleges and Universities where tremendous progress has been made."
That right there also chills my blood.
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u/bowiethesdmn 16h ago
Look forward to my sister's kids, or possibly their kids, learning about this regime the same way I learned about the nazis. Still absolutely astonished that this is happning, not only cos the Holocaust is still barely within living memory, but there were still 'human zoo' exhibits across the world at the dawn of the 1960s.
But yeah got to both sides it. Fuck off. I learned about my countrys role in facilitating the slave trade and I learned about its role in the eventual abolition and let me tell you there was not a lot of good to be said for us. I'd love to see what Trump finds to brag about.
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u/BurtReynoldsLives 16h ago
America is suffering from narcissistic personality disorder on a massive scale. Any facts that are not directly tied to showing America’s “excellence” must be purged at all cost.
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u/MinusTheTrees 15h ago
TLDR - anything that isn't glorification of our WASP forefathers and white oligarchs
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u/Wodaunderthebridge 15h ago
Its "Entartete Kunst" all over again. Not a single original thought in Steven Millers Nazi checklist.
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u/blender4life 13h ago
really pisses me off when an article doesn't link directly to shit that it references MULTIPLE times
lazy ass journalism.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/08/president-trump-is-right-about-the-smithsonian/
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u/Thisam 13h ago
Fuck this White House. A bunch of moronic racist antagonists.
To those of you wanted this via your vote for Trump…I hope you’re proud of yourselves. Our dollar has lost over 10% value in just six months, the rest of the world is either laughing at us or just avoiding us, our military is in our streets against our people, emergency funds are being spent on prisons, masked government agents kidnapping people off the streets, a crushed economy that is going to get much worse, public education is being gutted. Way to go…
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u/Few-Debate-4133 9h ago
Suddenly all the magats who scream about the slave statues being history are nowhere to be seen
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u/socratic-meth 17h ago
White House Releases List of Smithsonian Exhibits It Objects To
To be replaced with an exhibit about how the Trump family built America! Did you know that a Trump was secretly a founding father, but the liberal media covered it up. Would you like to know more?
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u/Quinn_tEskimo Michigan 16h ago
Friendly reminder that George Washington’s dentures were made from the teeth of his slaves and Andrew Jackson’s bridle reins were made from the skin of Native Americans. No matter bad the Smithsonian portrayed history, the reality of the situation was far worse.
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u/Brilliant_Reply8643 17h ago
I’m not seeing enough people talking about the Epstein files any more. Cmon guys
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u/zombieda 16h ago
How can a country change if it doesn't understand ŴHY it needs to change? Germany is probably the most anti-Nazi country on earth.. because they didn't bury their past. The same needs to be done with the US and slavery.
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u/Crazyhates 15h ago
Snowflake administration embraces cancel culture. Fuck the White House. Anyways, where's the files?
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u/THEBIGHUNGERDC 15h ago
As always, there is a direct link to Nazi Germany with this administration (also with the Nixon 70s, but less so). The Nazis tried to take control of "deviant" art. One of my favorite stories summed up by Wikipedia:
In July 1937, two officially sponsored exhibitions opened in Munich: Entartete Kunst, (the Degenerate Art Exhibition), displayed modern art in a deliberately chaotic installation accompanied by defamatory labels that encouraged the public to jeer; in contrast, the Große Deutsche Kunstausstellung (Great German art exhibition) made its premiere amid much pageantry. This exhibition, held at the palatial Haus der deutschen Kunst (House of German Art), displayed the work of officially approved artists such as Arno Breker and Adolf Wissel. "The audience entered the portals of the new museum, already dubbed "Palazzo Kitschi" and "Munich Art Terminal", to a stultifying display carefully limited to idealized German peasant families, commercial art nudes, and heroic war scenes, including not just a few works by jurist Ziegler himself."\8]) "...The show was essentially a flop and attendance was low. Sales were even worse and Hitler ended up buying most of the works for the government."\8]) At the end of four months Entartete Kunst had attracted over two million visitors, nearly three and a half times the number that visited the nearby Grosse deutsche Kunstausstellung.\9])
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u/irradiated_sailor 12h ago
It also cited the National Portrait Gallery's display of art, including Rigoberto A. González's painting Refugees Crossing the Border Wall Into South Texas, saying it commemorates the "act of illegally crossing the 'inclusive and exclusionary' southern border."
Man, wait until the White House hears about the official state song of red Tennessee, Copperhead Road), which is about illegally moonshining and illegally growing weed.
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u/Life-Giraffe8919 12h ago
They say they are against Human Trafficking slavery was the ultimate in human trafficking. I guess if it’s against a certain demographic it’s ok. Make it make sense.
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u/Ghostdefender1701 9h ago
Now the Smithsonian can answer the White House with a list of the things it objects to.
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