Anonymous
03/09/2025 17:58
Subject: Re:MAGA erasing history
^^ to clarify, the "just for kicks" and all that follows is me, not Tom NIchols.
Anonymous
03/09/2025 17:57
Subject: Re:MAGA erasing history
Tom Nichols in the Atlantic:
Of course, tagging for deletion images such as those of the Enola Gay is likely a mistake made by someone who plugged in gay as a keyword for a global find-and-mark command. The military, like other organizations, loves metrics, and the people in charge of executing the anti-DEI push almost certainly want to be able to show some sort of measurable progress on “eliminating DEI.”
But why not just focus on the president’s order to cancel current spending on such programs? As a former DOD employee, I had to sit through some DEI events, and in my view, they were not a great use of government time. I did not need a professor from a local college to come in and explain what cis means. (My first thought during that presentation was: How much are we paying for this?)
Hegseth and the Pentagon, however, don’t seem particularly focused on pruning all wasteful spending, because they’re actually spending money and investing hours of federal-worker time to indulge in a kind of gay panic in the DOD archives. This effort is part of a larger memory-holing exercise that includes not only getting rid of references to sexual minorities, but also eradicating racial and ethnic “firsts.” As the AP reported: “The vast majority of the Pentagon purge targets women and minorities, including notable milestones made in the military. And it also removes a large number of posts that mention various commemorative months—such as those for Black and Hispanic people and women.”
It’s humorous to think that the Enola Gay got caught in a roundup of ostensibly pro-LGBTQ materials, but the whole business raises the question of the purpose behind deleting tens of thousands of images. There is something fundamentally weird about interpreting an order to get rid of DEI programs as a charge to erase pages of American history. What are the lethal warfighters of the Pentagon so afraid of?
Just for kicks, I went to the website for the USAF, I was going to look for Paul Tibbets, then DEI.
I got redirected to another url with a 404 error and a message saying they have moved the platform for public facing sites, tried those and some other searches, but it says it is re-indexing its sites so everything is going to a generic 404 error (where the page is all white with the error text in the upper left corner. So I guess you can't search anything, really.
I put that url on the wayback machine, which had not yet saved it.
As an aside, physicians have completely restored the original CDC site (with a different url) from before it got the chainsaw.
Of course, tagging for deletion images such as those of the Enola Gay is likely a mistake made by someone who plugged in gay as a keyword for a global find-and-mark command. The military, like other organizations, loves metrics, and the people in charge of executing the anti-DEI push almost certainly want to be able to show some sort of measurable progress on “eliminating DEI.”
But why not just focus on the president’s order to cancel current spending on such programs? As a former DOD employee, I had to sit through some DEI events, and in my view, they were not a great use of government time. I did not need a professor from a local college to come in and explain what cis means. (My first thought during that presentation was: How much are we paying for this?)
Hegseth and the Pentagon, however, don’t seem particularly focused on pruning all wasteful spending, because they’re actually spending money and investing hours of federal-worker time to indulge in a kind of gay panic in the DOD archives. This effort is part of a larger memory-holing exercise that includes not only getting rid of references to sexual minorities, but also eradicating racial and ethnic “firsts.” As the AP reported: “The vast majority of the Pentagon purge targets women and minorities, including notable milestones made in the military. And it also removes a large number of posts that mention various commemorative months—such as those for Black and Hispanic people and women.”
It’s humorous to think that the Enola Gay got caught in a roundup of ostensibly pro-LGBTQ materials, but the whole business raises the question of the purpose behind deleting tens of thousands of images. There is something fundamentally weird about interpreting an order to get rid of DEI programs as a charge to erase pages of American history. What are the lethal warfighters of the Pentagon so afraid of?
Just for kicks, I went to the website for the USAF, I was going to look for Paul Tibbets, then DEI.
I got redirected to another url with a 404 error and a message saying they have moved the platform for public facing sites, tried those and some other searches, but it says it is re-indexing its sites so everything is going to a generic 404 error (where the page is all white with the error text in the upper left corner. So I guess you can't search anything, really.
I put that url on the wayback machine, which had not yet saved it.
As an aside, physicians have completely restored the original CDC site (with a different url) from before it got the chainsaw.
Anonymous
03/09/2025 17:39
Subject: Re:MAGA erasing history
It was the left that went on a statue tearing down rampage. Don't whine now
Anonymous
03/09/2025 16:55
Subject: MAGA erasing history
Anonymous wrote:And what's more, MAGA complains that taking down a Confederate statue is erasing history. Ridiculous.
I'd say revenge but it's more so because MAGA stands for racism, homophobia, misogyny, hatred, and division. So this is all good for them. They want to keep it white and male.
Anonymous
03/09/2025 15:40
Subject: MAGA erasing history
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:It is not erasing history. It is fixing how some have continually fixated in framing history in terms of immutable characteristics, as opposed to individual character and merit.
It's appalling. It is also a waste of resources. First, it has to be defined as a work project to be done with a plan to do it. Of course they are using technology (sounds like the idiotic keyword searches they have used elsewhere) but then to avoid being entirely stupid they have to one way or another review image content (so they don't remove the Enola Gay photo, tagged because of the word "gay"). Someone has to also write a report to be reviewed by someone higher in command to be reported up the chain to confirm the work has been done (because, you know, we want to be sure even military people aren't just getting paid to sit around doing online shopping). Total, pointless waste.
Maybe we are living in a Vonnegut novel.
Little Boy Blue and the men going to the moon
Anonymous
03/09/2025 15:22
Subject: MAGA erasing history
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I'm not defending the action described in this article-- I'm not opposed to DEI, and I don't know anything about this database-- but the notion that the military henceforth won't be showing pictures of the Enola Gay is obviously absurd and not whats happening here. It's hard to get worked up about the removal (or preservation) of some database I've never seen, and neither I nor you have any real sense as to whether this is a big deal.
It IS what is happening. The achievements of the Tuskegee airmen are being purged from history, as one example.
The Tuskegee Airmen aren't erased from history but placed in context. They deserve recognition beyond current DEI narratives. Their legacy, particularly regarding the racial challenges they faced, would likely endure as a respected part of military history despite political changes.
Anonymous
03/09/2025 15:20
Subject: MAGA erasing history
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I'm not defending the action described in this article-- I'm not opposed to DEI, and I don't know anything about this database-- but the notion that the military henceforth won't be showing pictures of the Enola Gay is obviously absurd and not whats happening here. It's hard to get worked up about the removal (or preservation) of some database I've never seen, and neither I nor you have any real sense as to whether this is a big deal.
It IS what is happening. The achievements of the Tuskegee airmen are being purged from history, as one example.
Um, per the article the White House insisted they restore videos about the Tuskegee airman that the Air Force had removed.
The Air Force briefly removed new recruit training courses that included videos of the Tuskegee Airmen soon after Trump’s order. That drew the White House’s ire over “malicious compliance,” and the Air Force quickly reversed the removal.
Meanwhile no doubt lots of taxpayer dollars were wasted by DoD taking down training courses, editing and deleting content and then posting it again.
Talk about waste, fraud and abuse. The Trump admin is committing a ton of needless waste and abuse with its deranged witch hunts for imaginary thoughtcrimes.
Good point. There was no wasted time/money with renaming buildings so peoples feelings wouldn't get hurt, or implementing 100% useless DEI training. No waste at all.
Anonymous
03/09/2025 15:19
Subject: MAGA erasing history
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I'm not defending the action described in this article-- I'm not opposed to DEI, and I don't know anything about this database-- but the notion that the military henceforth won't be showing pictures of the Enola Gay is obviously absurd and not whats happening here. It's hard to get worked up about the removal (or preservation) of some database I've never seen, and neither I nor you have any real sense as to whether this is a big deal.
It IS what is happening. The achievements of the Tuskegee airmen are being purged from history, as one example.
Um, per the article the White House insisted they restore videos about the Tuskegee airman that the Air Force had removed.
The Air Force briefly removed new recruit training courses that included videos of the Tuskegee Airmen soon after Trump’s order. That drew the White House’s ire over “malicious compliance,” and the Air Force quickly reversed the removal.
Good point. There was no wasted time/money with renaming buildings so peoples feelings wouldn't get hurt, or implementing 100% useless DEI training. No waste at all.
Meanwhile no doubt lots of taxpayer dollars were wasted by DoD taking down training courses, editing and deleting content and then posting it again.
Talk about waste, fraud and abuse. The Trump admin is committing a ton of needless waste and abuse with its deranged witch hunts for imaginary thoughtcrimes.
Anonymous
03/09/2025 15:07
Subject: MAGA erasing history
Anonymous wrote:https://apnews.com/article/dei-purge-images-pentagon-diversity-women-black-8efcfaec909954f4a24bad0d49c78074
How can any MAGAs defend this???
Ha! That’s rich. AP is known for removing and not using certain words. They use the cuties name “styling” but at its essence it is the same thing.
The only difference is that it is sane language versus woke speech.
Anonymous
03/09/2025 14:10
Subject: MAGA erasing history
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:https://apnews.com/article/dei-purge-images-pentagon-diversity-women-black-8efcfaec909954f4a24bad0d49c78074
How can any MAGAs defend this???
It's easy to defend.
AP wrote it, so you're only hearing half the story. The other half won't be published because it doesn't fit the narrative.
Look the authors up and see what else they have written. By TARA COPP, LOLITA C. BALDOR and KEVIN VINEYS
See how easy that was? Have a nice day.
You agree that history you don’t like should be erased?
Anonymous
03/09/2025 11:45
Subject: MAGA erasing history
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:https://apnews.com/article/dei-purge-images-pentagon-diversity-women-black-8efcfaec909954f4a24bad0d49c78074
How can any MAGAs defend this???
It's easy to defend.
AP wrote it, so you're only hearing half the story. The other half won't be published because it doesn't fit the narrative.
Look the authors up and see what else they have written. By TARA COPP, LOLITA C. BALDOR and KEVIN VINEYS
See how easy that was? Have a nice day.
Oh, it was easy. Found news articles reporting news.
what exactly was your point?
Anonymous
03/09/2025 09:06
Subject: MAGA erasing history
Anonymous wrote:https://apnews.com/article/dei-purge-images-pentagon-diversity-women-black-8efcfaec909954f4a24bad0d49c78074
How can any MAGAs defend this???
This is what authoritarians do. This is why the attacks on public education and universities take place. Did anyone read 1984 by George Orwell?
Anonymous
03/08/2025 23:16
Subject: MAGA erasing history
Alarming.
Anonymous
03/08/2025 21:54
Subject: MAGA erasing history
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I'm not defending the action described in this article-- I'm not opposed to DEI, and I don't know anything about this database-- but the notion that the military henceforth won't be showing pictures of the Enola Gay is obviously absurd and not whats happening here. It's hard to get worked up about the removal (or preservation) of some database I've never seen, and neither I nor you have any real sense as to whether this is a big deal.
It IS what is happening. The achievements of the Tuskegee airmen are being purged from history, as one example.
Um, per the article the White House insisted they restore videos about the Tuskegee airman that the Air Force had removed.
The Air Force briefly removed new recruit training courses that included videos of the Tuskegee Airmen soon after Trump’s order. That drew the White House’s ire over “malicious compliance,” and the Air Force quickly reversed the removal.
That’s hilarious. What a disastrous administration.
Anonymous
03/08/2025 20:07
Subject: MAGA erasing history
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I'm not defending the action described in this article-- I'm not opposed to DEI, and I don't know anything about this database-- but the notion that the military henceforth won't be showing pictures of the Enola Gay is obviously absurd and not whats happening here. It's hard to get worked up about the removal (or preservation) of some database I've never seen, and neither I nor you have any real sense as to whether this is a big deal.
It IS what is happening. The achievements of the Tuskegee airmen are being purged from history, as one example.
Um, per the article the White House insisted they restore videos about the Tuskegee airman that the Air Force had removed.
The Air Force briefly removed new recruit training courses that included videos of the Tuskegee Airmen soon after Trump’s order. That drew the White House’s ire over “malicious compliance,” and the Air Force quickly reversed the removal.
Meanwhile no doubt lots of taxpayer dollars were wasted by DoD taking down training courses, editing and deleting content and then posting it again.
Talk about waste, fraud and abuse. The Trump admin is committing a ton of needless waste and abuse with its deranged witch hunts for imaginary thoughtcrimes.