Trump Wants to Erase History from the Smithsonian, Calling It Removal of “Partisan Narratives”

On Tuesday, I noted Representative Eric Burlison’s crusade to find the bones of the Nephilim, the race of mythological giants, that have been hidden in the basement of the Smithsonian Institution. Now it looks like the ahistorical Know Nothings in the White House are looking to erase enough actual American history in the Smithsonian to make room for the giant bones. From CNN:

The White House is conducting a comprehensive internal review of exhibits and materials at the Smithsonian Institution—the organization that runs the nation’s major public museums—in an effort to comply with President Donald Trump’s directive about what should and shouldn’t be displayed.

The initiative, a trio of top Trump aides wrote in a letter to Smithsonian Institution secretary Lonnie Bunch III, “aims to ensure alignment with the President’s directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions.”

James Smithson was the bastard son of an English nobleman and became a self-made genius chemist and mineralogist who made himself a millionaire. Smithson’s scientific curiosity was boundless. He published 27 scientific papers on subjects ranging from traditional Indian medicines to the geological categorization of calamine. When researching the latter, he discovered a new zinc-based mineral that came to be called smithsonite. He hung with the top scientific minds of his day, including Joseph Priestley, who discovered oxygen, and Andre Lavoisier, one of the founders of modern chemistry. He also studied fossils found in a cave in France and helped disprove the belief they were left there after Noah’s flood. That would have marked Smithson lousy with the current House majority.

Upon his death in 1829, Smithson left his huge fortune to his nephew and, upon his nephew’s death, the bequest moved on to the United States for the purpose of founding the “Smithsonian Institution.” It took Congress 12 years to accept Smithson’s largesse, but it finally did. Alas, in 1865, the original Smithsonian “castle” burned down and took most of Smithson’s papers with it. Smithson originally was buried in Italy, but his body was exhumed and moved to the United States, an operation overseen by Alexander Graham Bell. Before his death, Smithson explained the ultimate reason behind his extraordinary bequest:

It is in his knowledge that man has found his greatness and his happiness, the high superiority which he holds over the other animals who inhabit the earth with him, and consequently no ignorance is probably without loss to him, no error without evil.

Smart fella. We have all become inured to this administration’s predilection for squashing scientific inquiry, but this is different. This is an attempt to deprive us of knowledge that we already know. It is positively Stalin-esque, applying the genetic research of Trofim Lysenko to American history. Were I a descendant of James Smithson, I’d demand a refund.