Trump Doesn’t Want Museums Talking About How Bad Slavery Was

So, it’s back to Truth Social, where I had to again wade through a bunch of ads (so many ads!) and nonsense to confirm Trump’s post as shared below. As usual, there is a lot going on here. Let me note that, like his attacks on universities, his current mania about museums is about attacking sources of expert information. He even makes reference to the pressure he has put on universities in this post.

The notion that museums are “OUT OF CONTROL” suggests that they should, in fact, be controlled, and he seems to think that he, or his agents, should be doing the controlling. There is a word for the notion that a central figure should be able to dictate what information is shared with the public.

While readers seek to figure out that word, as usual, Trump’s post makes me think, yet again, of Stanley’s How Fascism Works. Chapter 3 is entitled “Anti-Intellectual,” and in looking for an appropriate quote or two, I find it tempting to say “go read the whole chapter.”

I’ll start with this.

In fascist ideology, there is only one legitimate viewpoint, that of the dominant nation. Schools introduce students to the dominant culture and its mythic past. Education therefore either poses a grave threat to fascism or becomes a pillar of support for the mythical nation (36).

Along those lines, notice Trump’s reference to the fact that museums (sorry, Museums) have the audacity to point out “how bad Slavery was.”

How dare they point out that white Christians did bad things! Amiright?

Why can’t we just tell heroic stories about westward expansion and conquering the land the way John Wayne intended?

Note the last sentence; he wants museums to be propaganda tools, not places of education or truth.

By the way, the notion that museums only talk about the bad things in the US’s past and ignore the good things is absurd. The Air and Space Museum (as well as places like the Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL) is full of the triumphs of the United States. As is the National Museum of American History, among any number of other places. The fact is that alongside many things worth celebrating about the US, there are the sins of slavery, the war on Native peoples, and things like Japanese internment (to name but three). This is just reality, which is what you are supposed to get in a proper museum. Of course, I don’t expect Trump to have spent a whole lot of time in museums to get a first-hand experience.

To return to Stanley,

Fascism is about the dominant perspective, and so, during fascist moments, there is a strong support for figures to denounce disciplines that teach perspectives other than the dominant ones–such as gender studies or, in the United States, African American studies or Middle Eastern studies. The dominant perspective is often mispresented as the truth, the “real history,” and any attempt to allow for alternative perspectives is derided as “cultural Marxism” (43).

That last line took my mind to Ezra Klein’s interview with Yoram Hazony (author of The Virtue of Nationalism).

 …most people on the right agree that there is a thing called woke, and most of them agree that it’s a strain of neo-Marxism.

It is a common accusation from many on the right, especially the nationalist right.

Setting aside deeper conversations about fascism and extreme nationalism, let me conclude with two observations.

1. Trump is here admitting that “woke” means things like acknowledging the evils of slavery, and that is something he does not want in our museums.
2. He thinks that the role of museums is to extol his version of American greatness in the moment.

In short, he wants museums to ignore truth in the service of a broader national mythology.

This is a clear attack on expertise and on truth.

It is not the proper realm for the president to be operating.

It is also extremely and grimly ironic that he has griped before that doing things like taking down statues and renaming buildings are some kind of erasure of history (when in fact, they are the revocation of undeserved honors), but here he is, arguing for the literal removal of history from museums.

Indeed, this is the administration that has restored the names of bases named for Confederates (wink-wink) and is currently restoring CSA monuments in the DC area, as the AP reported earlier this month: Confederate statues in DC area to be restored and replaced in line with Trump’s executive order.

Note: Trump is saying that talking about how slavery was bad is a problem, and he has ordered the restoration of monuments to Confederates.

Who won the Civil War, again?

Maybe I should go to a museum to find out before it’s too late…