Why conservatives are obsessed with erasing history--except the Confederacy

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

The Trump administration has spent the last month on a tear, using President Donald Trump’s newfound power in multiple departments and agencies for a goal that seems bewildering at first glance: deleting history.

Under the guise of eliminating diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, the administration has literally erased government-maintained documents honoring and remembering key figures and moments from U.S. and world history.

The Department of Defense removed a photo of the Enola Gay B-29 bomber because it contains the word “gay.” Arlington Cemetery scrapped then reinstated a tribute to Jackie Robinson, the first Black man to play Major League Baseball and an Army lieutenant.

Photos and histories of people of color, women, and the LGBTQ+ community are being purged, and nearly every day some new erasure is being uncovered. When caught in the act, the Trump administration has offered up the claim that these cases were merely mistakes—“malicious compliance” from bad actors within the government.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/3/22/2311705/-Why-conservatives-are-obsessed-with-erasing-history-except-the-Confederacy

[defacto7]

1. The practice goes back to the beginning of civilization.

It just seems to be a common thread with all totalitarian regimes, cover the truth with whatever keeps them in control.

[NCDem47]

2. Those with the power write history.

Twas ever thus.

[defacto7]

3. Yup. And they do their best to erase it too.

So far, erasure has never worked. Just look at the imperial names later pharaohs tried to chisel from stone walls and pillars in ancient Egypt. Compare the commissioned writing of historians in imperial Rome to the stone carved history on tributes recovered from the same period. History finds a way.

[Skittles]

4. hardly a surprise with these racist assholes

yes indeed