Matt Bai: To put a happier, less discomfiting spin on the exhibits in this museum would make us more like Russia or China or North Korea, or any other country where history becomes a strongman’s self-serving fairy tale that no one outside the country believes. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
The censorship is beginning and it’s creeping, sometimes subtle. The Frieda Kahlo exhibit at Richmond VA Museum of Contemporary Art doesn’t mention her queerness, her sexuality. Exhibit at Muscarelle Museum in William and Mary’s history doesn’t mention their discriminatory past. It has begun.
It began decades before your birth
I hope some people in the museums are finding a way to gather up all the "offensive" art / displays / literature and finding a good place to hide it. It took a long time but people hid and saved things from the Nazis we have to do it now.
I’m sure the Smithsonian staff are putting aside all the documentation and are planning the exhibits for what this period is eventually named
p-2025 MUST BE STOPED #Resistance of this #CriminalRegime #Occupation Release the #Epstein files ALL #EpsteinFiles #EpsteinMaxwell Files #Resist this #LawlessRegime #Impeach #arrest #prosecute #JailTime #DemocracyMatters #DefeatRussia #SlavaUkraine @electiontruthalliance.org #VerifyTheVote
In George Orwell's "A Clergyman's Daughter," students in a bad school are reading a textbook that says things like "After the French Revolution was over, the self-styled Emperor Napoleon Buonaparte attempted to set up his sway, but though he won a few victories against continental troops,
he soon found that in the 'thin red line' he had more than met his match. Conclusions were tried upon the field of Waterloo, where 50,000 Britons put to flight 70,000 Frenchmen—for the Prussians, our allies, arrived too late for the battle. With a ringing British cheer
our men charged down the slope and the enemy broke and fled. We now come on to the great Reform Bill of 1832, the first of those beneficent reforms which have made British liberty what it is and marked us off from the less fortunate nations..."
yup, that's exactly what the usa is now... it's not going in that direction: it's there
Thoughtful piece, and I agree: the museum shows both the painful truths and the resilience that define American history. That balance feels more patriotic than trying to sanitize the past.
Side note though: I had actually stopped reading WPO opinions after Bezos narrowed the section’s remit. I’m curious how columnists see their work fitting under those new constraints. Does this kind of reflection still have room to breathe?
I'm not familiar with the writer's work so can't tell if he's holding back, but he gives Trump far more benefit of the doubt than POTUS has ever merited. To me, the assault on the Smithsonian is further evidence that Make America Great Again means, to Trump, a return to Jim Crow-era race relations.
I agree that giving him any credit is too much. Honestly, I didn’t read the piece as even a little pro-POTUS—it’s actually a thoughtful visit to the African American museum that defends its mission.
It describes a deft balance: confronting the brutality of slavery while ultimately spotlighting the resilience and freedoms that define America. That kind of honest storytelling, not sugarcoating, but still inspirational, feels more patriotic than the effort to soften or sanitize reality.
The real problem, however, is that the moment you try to say something intelligent about anything Trump is doing, you somehow take the edge off the actual crazy reality he’s creating.
Expect, Trump was never a "Strong Man". He wants to be a dicator, yet is too much of a coward to even display anything that ever be worthy note worthy, other than making the country look bad and himself a fool.
Time for Mad King Trump to get rid of his business suit (failed) and put on his true uniform (Benito Mussolini). Except Benitor had a better sense of style.
THE ANTITHESIS.
Only serious pussies can’t handle their own history.
"american history" is notoriously self-serving. are you serious rn?
Has anyone noticed the Trumpian silence on the SI Memorial (aka Holocaust) Museum? This Administration has laser focus on non-white people, past and present. All SI museums should be truth-tellers. Leave them alone.
" ... a strongman’s self-serving fairy tale that no one outside the country believes." And, judging from the Russian and Chinese people I've known, few of the people INside the country, either.
True but too late, Trump is already modelling the USA on Russia, China or North Korea as we witness daily, even the giant billboards of his face are going up. Right now he is trying to seize control of the national bank whilst putting military on your streets. Time is running out for the USA. Fast.
The thing is, he's only removing this history which will be temporary, when it's reintroduced he and his Jackie's will be in the smithsonion as the racist president who ordered them removed, his legacy will not be flattering .
I meant lackies
The version of the Korean War taught in North Korea is more accurate than the one taught in the United States
It makes the US and it's citizens look weak.
Meanwhile the WaPo helped elect the glorious leader so Trump would sell the USPS to Bezos #WaPoGuilty
Find a protest and every day call your reps & GOP leaders. None of this stops until he’s gone. Your reps and GOP leaders can be reached 202-224-3121 Tell them to remove Trump by impeachment/treason charges Need help use 5calls.org Also, Runforsomething.net
That’s exactly what American-taught American history is though. You don’t know anything