The moves against educational institutions, archives, and libraries are so pernicious because they reveal a radically illiberal agenda and the detrimental effects won't become apparent for years or even decades.
What's worse is that it doesn't seem like it's in the best interest of any individual institution or the interests of people running these institutions to resist, so it becomes a coordination problem between getting all the institutions to work together to oppose these actions.
hayst4ck · 16d ago
Authoritarians need to control history because if you understand history, it provides a foundation to judge the actions of those currently in power and damages their legitimacy.
As soon as authoritarians are able to consolidate power, they go after intellectuals, chroniclers of history, journalists, and other people who ground themselves in reality. Reason is the natural enemy of authority.
Nothing is more telling than deletion of a graph that shows the consequence of poor policy decisions, rather than addressing it or changing policy, and we can expect to experience this literally and metaphorically until American's realize we aren't exceptional because we are American, but because our forefathers lived out American values, and right now we have abandoned American values.
r14c · 16d ago
I'm with you on a lot of this, but you might want to think about how circular this statement is: "until American's realize we aren't exceptional because we are American, but because our forefathers lived out American values" and then read a lot more American history before it gets deleted.
What's troubling to me is that we can't easily own our history, even while we are asserting the necessity to stay grounded in reality.
hulitu · 16d ago
> Authoritarians need to control history
Not only authoritarians.
mahkeiro · 16d ago
And then the US vice president try to lecture Europeans on freedom of speech...
outer_web · 16d ago
Politics was already short on ideological consistency before the age of alternative facts.
soraminazuki · 16d ago
True, but it's still worth pointing it out though.
So this money is already appropriated and going to be redirected to institutions that pledge fealty?
npvrite · 16d ago
Man that's a lot of fiat.
So anyway Trump's former AG Bill Barr's father hired Epstein with no degree to a college profession at Dalton. His father also wrote a science fiction book about the rich sexually exploiting poors which Epstein just so happened to copy.
And then Epstein tapes come out and he says he was best friends for 10 years with orange... I mean Trump. PDF FILE IN THE WHITE HOUSE of representatives official website. Yes that last sentence was a play on words. LOL
What's worse is that it doesn't seem like it's in the best interest of any individual institution or the interests of people running these institutions to resist, so it becomes a coordination problem between getting all the institutions to work together to oppose these actions.
As soon as authoritarians are able to consolidate power, they go after intellectuals, chroniclers of history, journalists, and other people who ground themselves in reality. Reason is the natural enemy of authority.
Nothing is more telling than deletion of a graph that shows the consequence of poor policy decisions, rather than addressing it or changing policy, and we can expect to experience this literally and metaphorically until American's realize we aren't exceptional because we are American, but because our forefathers lived out American values, and right now we have abandoned American values.
What's troubling to me is that we can't easily own our history, even while we are asserting the necessity to stay grounded in reality.
Not only authoritarians.
So anyway Trump's former AG Bill Barr's father hired Epstein with no degree to a college profession at Dalton. His father also wrote a science fiction book about the rich sexually exploiting poors which Epstein just so happened to copy.
And then Epstein tapes come out and he says he was best friends for 10 years with orange... I mean Trump. PDF FILE IN THE WHITE HOUSE of representatives official website. Yes that last sentence was a play on words. LOL
https://docs.house.gov/meetings/JU/JU08/20250227/117951/HHRG...