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Monday, March 31, 2025
Trump executive order to force changes at Smithsonian Institution, targeting funding for programs with ‘improper ideology
PBS News: President Donald Trump on Thursday revealed his intention to force changes at the Smithsonian Institution with an executive order that targets funding for programs that advance “divisive narratives” and “improper ideology,” the latest step in a broadside against culture he deems too liberal.
2 comments:
Reigh Wilson
said...
This is so freaking stupid, it is honestly so crazy how quickly Trump is targeting our art and history. And it is even more ridiculous that he is telling the Smithsonian that they have improper ideology, there is no ideology, its history, its archival of objects and their contexts. I honestly don’t know how all of this is going to pan out as I am sure museums have a code of conduct or policies that restrict them improper framing and misinformation about the things that are cataloging and displaying. I don’t know how Trump is going to continue to target the spread of information and history within our country, but I hope that the Smithsonian will come out unscathed in the process, and any other arts and educational institutes he and his administration attempts to target next. Especially since I think the Smithsonian is mostly operated from private investors, I’m not sure how much control the government has over their organization.
I usually do not comment on articles like this because they fill me with rage and result in me writing way too many words. This one really rubbed me the wrong way though, and I had to make a comment about it. I am just going to skip over the part where this raises so many red flags and is quite literally the textbook definition of an early warning sign of dictatorship, tyranny, and genocide, and skip right to the part where this is just plain stupid. The “objective fact” is that America is so much more than rich white people. America is not America without the mixing of all the cultures. So yes, this is extremely racist and oppressive, but not teaching about African-American culture or women’s history is, I believe, inherently “un-American”. The other thing that is stated in the last two paragraphs of the article, is that “the Smithsonian Institute is the world’s largest museum, education, and research complex,” and that it was founded as “an establishment for the increase in diffusion of knowledge.” And that’s the truth. As great as Trump wants the United States to be, restricting research is setting us back and taking us out of the global stage. Because of the genetic makeup of this country and the resources we have, we are in a unique position to do and distribute this research, and the whole world suffers from our denial and erasure of it. The only “objective fact” here is that Donald Trump is a dictatorial racist.
2 comments:
This is so freaking stupid, it is honestly so crazy how quickly Trump is targeting our art and history. And it is even more ridiculous that he is telling the Smithsonian that they have improper ideology, there is no ideology, its history, its archival of objects and their contexts. I honestly don’t know how all of this is going to pan out as I am sure museums have a code of conduct or policies that restrict them improper framing and misinformation about the things that are cataloging and displaying. I don’t know how Trump is going to continue to target the spread of information and history within our country, but I hope that the Smithsonian will come out unscathed in the process, and any other arts and educational institutes he and his administration attempts to target next. Especially since I think the Smithsonian is mostly operated from private investors, I’m not sure how much control the government has over their organization.
I usually do not comment on articles like this because they fill me with rage and result in me writing way too many words. This one really rubbed me the wrong way though, and I had to make a comment about it. I am just going to skip over the part where this raises so many red flags and is quite literally the textbook definition of an early warning sign of dictatorship, tyranny, and genocide, and skip right to the part where this is just plain stupid. The “objective fact” is that America is so much more than rich white people. America is not America without the mixing of all the cultures. So yes, this is extremely racist and oppressive, but not teaching about African-American culture or women’s history is, I believe, inherently “un-American”. The other thing that is stated in the last two paragraphs of the article, is that “the Smithsonian Institute is the world’s largest museum, education, and research complex,” and that it was founded as “an establishment for the increase in diffusion of knowledge.” And that’s the truth. As great as Trump wants the United States to be, restricting research is setting us back and taking us out of the global stage. Because of the genetic makeup of this country and the resources we have, we are in a unique position to do and distribute this research, and the whole world suffers from our denial and erasure of it. The only “objective fact” here is that Donald Trump is a dictatorial racist.
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