Brightness falls from the air
Don’t forget the museums. Gotta micromanage the museums. They have to show how grate America is.
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he has ordered his attorneys to conduct a review of Smithsonian museums, calling their portrayal of U.S. history too negative and focused too much on “how bad Slavery was.”
Trump said he would subject the museums to “the exact same process” his administration has conducted of universities, with the goal of making the Smithsonian less “woke.”
Because without woke, nobody would think slavery was a bad thing.
Trump wrote on Truth Social: “The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been — Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future.”
But what was that success based on?
A lot of it was based on the unpaid labor of people kidnapped out of Africa and their children and grandchildren for generations. Cotton made some people very rich, and it entrenched a system of enslavement that lasted for way too many years. Those facts were tactfully veiled for generations but then finally the lid blew off. The facts in question may not be important to Trump, but then his grandparents didn’t grow up chopping cotton in the Mississippi Delta.
The Trump administration last week began conducting an unprecedented review of exhibits at the Smithsonian ahead of the country’s 250th anniversary in an effort to make sure they comply with Trump’s vision of history.
But Trump’s “vision of history” is the cartoonish dream of pale people from Germany and Scotland moving to Ahmericah to make tons and tons of money so that a little boy called Donald would one day put his great big fist through everything and laugh like a drain.
I wonder if the Smithsonian will soon be displaying a photo of Grossvater Friedrich Drumpf’s brothel-hotel in the Yukon. Canada’s former PM Justin Trudeau presented Trump with a framed copy from Canada’s National Archives at their first G-7 meeting. And now the ingrate hits Canada with massive tariffs. The nerve!
Much like the studies showing women are perceived as dominating the conversation if they speak a small portion of the time, I suspect that “focus too much on how bad slavery was” means “mention how bad slavery was”.
Truth is but a flower
Which falsehoods do devour;
Wrongness falls from the air:
Fox has made nobody care;
Power hath closed their eye.
We are sick, we must die.
None shall have mercy on us.
I’m glad I saw the Spy Museum before they took out all the exhibits that weren’t about white men.
It would be half the size.
As far as I am concerned, people on the political right put their foot in it big time when using the word ‘woke’ as a term of abuse. Clearly, they would prefer a nation of sleepwalking zombies, at their disposal to carry out any instruction from them without question or ‘answering back.’
So I am in the market for a T-shirt saying something like ‘WOKE! AND PROUD OF SO BEING.! Might enquire down at the local K-Mart. Could start a fashion trend.
If making America grate again means getting rid of fake “Parmesan” cheese, I’m all for it.
To be fair, this is the same Smithsonian that had the exhibit detailing the horrors of “white culture”, such as the nuclear family, planning for the future, self-reliance, rational thinking, or causation. So I am inclined to think it has some housecleaning coming.
A racist poster isn’t a justification of “housecleaning”; it was gotten rid of.
This is more of that same “It’s not what I would do, but a burning car is why we need military occupation of LA.” That’s the banality of evil and why we’re currently in hell.
It was the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture that put out the “Talking About Race” guide/polemic/whatever. It’s not the fault of the entire Smithsonian.
And Donald Trump isn’t the right person to do the correcting.
BKiSA: To me, you sound like, “Sure there was that one pedophile on Roblox, but he was banned, so it’s unlikely there’s another, and there’s no reason to look for more or implement safeguards.”
Ophelia: Then Democratic politicians should have performed the correction while they had the power. I’m actually not being snide. The possibility that the opposition party could at any point take power is supposed to motivate action, not just fundraising, precisely because we think the other guys are the wrong party to do things in general.
And you sound like a Bari Weiss-style fascist apologist (which is what I am increasingly inclined to think you are you are), what’s your point?
If Nikki Haley (or even DeSantis) was president I might take a different view but we’re not in that world and we won’t be. Giving a pass to the fucking Ministry of Truth just because you have an axe to grind doesn’t pass the smell test.
The title of this post looks familiar. aha!
Brightness Falls From the Air by James Tiptree, Jr
:-)
Tiptree took the title from a poem by Thomas Nashe, a near-contemporary of Shakespeare’s. It’s an extraordinary poem.
A Litany in Time of Plague
Adieu, farewell, earth’s bliss;
This world uncertain is;
Fond are life’s lustful joys;
Death proves them all but toys;
None from his darts can fly;
I am sick, I must die.
Lord, have mercy on us!
Rich men, trust not in wealth,
Gold cannot buy you health;
Physic himself must fade.
All things to end are made,
The plague full swift goes by;
I am sick, I must die.
Lord, have mercy on us!
Beauty is but a flower
Which wrinkles will devour;
Brightness falls from the air;
Queens have died young and fair;
Dust hath closed Helen’s eye.
I am sick, I must die.
Lord, have mercy on us!
Strength stoops unto the grave,
Worms feed on Hector brave;
Swords may not fight with fate,
Earth still holds open her gate.
“Come, come!” the bells do cry.
I am sick, I must die.
Lord, have mercy on us!
Wit with his wantonness
Tasteth death’s bitterness;
Hell’s executioner
Hath no ears for to hear
What vain art can reply.
I am sick, I must die.
Lord, have mercy on us!
Haste, therefore, each degree,
To welcome destiny;
Heaven is our heritage,
Earth but a player’s stage;
Mount we unto the sky.
I am sick, I must die.
Lord, have mercy on us!
That’s excellent, and despite the religious overtones, very poignant. Thanks!
Ophelia @13
Cool! I didn’t know that. Since it’s been so long since I read the book, though, I’ll need to read it again to see a connection or why Tiptree may have picked that line.
I like the poem.
The Lizziebethans produced some fine fine poetry.