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Drudge Retort: The Other Side of the News
Thursday, September 18, 2025

The Washington Post published an exclusive story on history erasure in America's national parks, reporting that the Department of Interior has ordered a famous Civil War-era photograph entitled "Scourged Back," removed from at least one national park site.

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The Trump administration has ordered the removal of signs and exhibits related to slavery at multiple national parks, including a historic photograph of a formerly enslaved man showing scars on his back.

-- The Washington Post (@washingtonpost.com) Sep 15, 2025 at 5:45 PM

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Chances are, if you've looked into the Civil War period likely seen "The Scourged Back" or some version of it as the image is quite famous. As the report above points out:

Harper's Weekly originally published the photo on Independence Day in 1863, in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg. At the time, it chronicled Gordon's escape from a Louisiana plantation before he took up arms for the Union during the Civil War, the Portrait Gallery website explains.
One journalist after seeing the image said, "This Card Photograph should be multiplied by 100,000 and scattered over the States. It tells the story in a way that even Mrs. [Harriet Beecher] Stowe cannot approach, because it tells the story to the eye," according to the Smithsonian museum.

Well, chalk up another one for the MAGAts' Memory Hole. Poof!

#1 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2025-09-16 03:40 PM | Reply

The offending photo is at www.metmuseum.org and plenty of other sites not yet controlled by the junta.

#2 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2025-09-16 03:43 PM | Reply

Nothing like belittling the suffering of enslaved people.

Can't have White people suffering with guilt over the actions of prior generations.

Better to deny Black people their history and heritage.

This is systematic racism on steroids.

#3 | Posted by ClownShack at 2025-09-16 03:44 PM | Reply

you must have an extremely small mind if you find evidence of our history of slavery as "corrosive ideology"

#4 | Posted by johnny_hotsauce at 2025-09-16 05:12 PM | Reply

'It exists!' he cried.
'No,' said O'Brien.
He stepped across the room. There was a memory hole in the opposite wall. O'Brien lifted the grating. Unseen, the frail slip of paper was whirling away on the current of warm air; it was vanishing in a flash of flame. O'Brien turned away from the wall.
'Ashes,' he said. 'Not even identifiable ashes. Dust. It does not exist. It never existed.'
'But it did exist! It does exist! It exists in memory. I remember it. You remember it.'
'I do not remember it,' said O'Brien.
(George Orwell, 1984)

#5 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2025-09-17 05:07 AM | Reply | Newsworthy 2

#5: Morning Doc Sarvis: You probably already know this, but the clever trick British civil servant George Orwell played in writing 1984 was making Winston's persecutor an Irishman (O'Brien).

#6 | Posted by C0RI0LANUS at 2025-09-17 05:23 AM | Reply

Didn't realize that, although I probably should have, and speaking as someone with longterm Anglo and Irish connections it certainly makes sense. Gracias!

#7 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2025-09-17 07:23 AM | Reply

Those Irish.

So Subversive.

They want Equality with their Betters.

The Nerve some "people" Have.

The Brits are very certain of their Authority to Rule....

Everything.

#8 | Posted by Effeteposer at 2025-09-17 12:08 PM | Reply

Ashamed of what they've done.

#9 | Posted by fresno500 at 2025-09-18 03:03 PM | Reply

#8 | Posted by Effeteposer

---- OFF TROLL -----

#10 | Posted by LegallyYourDead at 2025-09-18 04:04 PM | Reply

#5

"2025" appears to be the book sequel to, "1984".... which is the year this new Republican Fascist Oligarchy re-started.

#11 | Posted by Corky at 2025-09-18 04:59 PM | Reply

#8 original racist

#12 | Posted by fresno500 at 2025-09-18 06:09 PM | Reply

Hey shouldn't you guys be scrubbing your anti fa post history instead of ----------- fresh hate?

#13 | Posted by sir_vicks at 2025-09-18 09:43 PM | Reply

... The Washington Post published an exclusive story on history erasure in America's national parks, ...

Yeah, the Trump administration's attempt to erase and rewrite history seems to go far beyond our esteemed National Parks.


#14 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-09-18 09:51 PM | Reply

Trump administration to prioritize 'patriotic education' in discretionary grants
www.reuters.com

#15 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-09-18 09:53 PM | Reply

@#12 ... #8 original racist ...

I disagree.

A Russian Troll seems to be a better appellation of that current alias.


#16 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-09-19 12:16 AM | Reply

Sarcasm is subtle.

People here...not so much.

Humor Fail.

Such literalism.

#17 | Posted by Effeteposer at 2025-09-19 09:00 AM | Reply

Is everyone here Autistic or something?

Sheesh.

#18 | Posted by Effeteposer at 2025-09-19 09:02 AM | Reply

It's as stupid to be against this photo being removed at a park as it is for liberals to be against allowing any progress America has made in civil rights from being discussed/illustrated. Liberals HAAAAAAAAAAAATE when America looks good by growing from our mistakes and actually go out of their way to try to get people to believe that black people are no any better today than they were in 1850, or 1960s.

So, spare us your faux outrage. The only reason you have any opinion on this is because your political religion blinds you just like every other type of religion in the world does to their respective followers.

#19 | Posted by humtake at 2025-09-19 12:00 PM | Reply

This focus on slavery is something else. They made a documentary recently about Thomas Jefferson and all they seemed to talk about or discuss about him revolved around slavery. It was utterly ridiculous. I had to turn it off.

#20 | Posted by THEBULL at 2025-09-19 03:50 PM | Reply | Funny: 1

The fatigue is real. Cancel the Left.

#21 | Posted by sir_vicks at 2025-09-19 04:24 PM | Reply

Daddysfist, here's the solution to your fatigue.

www.nbcnews.com

#22 | Posted by reinheitsgebot at 2025-09-19 04:28 PM | Reply

They made a documentary recently about Thomas Jefferson and all they seemed to talk about or discuss about him revolved around slavery. It was utterly ridiculous.

Thomas Jefferson, like all people have many aspects to their character/lives. Why shouldn't all aspects of his character/life be explored? As significant a person as he was in American history, I am sure that his life has been explored in great detail. This particular documentarian explored an aspect of his life that (s)he felt was worthy of further exploration. What's wrong with that? Authors of books do it all the time. How many books have been written about Lincoln and other famous people? Further more, authors/documentarians are not experts in all aspects of their subject's life. They certainly would be out of line to opine on aspects of their subject's life for which they aren't experts.

We happen to live in an age where more details about our troubled past is being revealed and it is very upsetting to some people. These details were purposely omitted from the public record and represented a white washing of history. Many people just can't handle the truth. Why is that?

#23 | Posted by FedUpWithPols at 2025-09-20 06:47 AM | Reply

Why can't they make documentaries about Hitler that focus on other aspects of his life besides the Nazi stuff??? /s

#24 | Posted by hamburglar at 2025-09-20 06:57 AM | Reply | Newsworthy 4

People who need whitewashed news certainly need whitewashed history

#25 | Posted by hamburglar at 2025-09-20 06:58 AM | Reply | Newsworthy 2

Slavery loomed yuugely large in Jefferson's life, and he experienced no little difficulty squaring his Enlightenment logic and ideals with his culture's realities. He was conflicted but we.f-interest seems to have helped him overcome any philosophical misgivings he had. ("But, as it is, we have the wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other.")

#26 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2025-09-20 07:00 AM | Reply

Or nation

#27 | Posted by fresno500 at 2025-09-20 10:03 AM | Reply

Why can't they make documentaries about Hitler that focus on other aspects of his life besides the Nazi stuff??? /s

According to Google's Gemini AI


It's impossible to give a precise number of documentaries that have been made about Hitler. The topic is one of the most documented in history, and films are continuously being produced.

#28 | Posted by FedUpWithPols at 2025-09-20 11:52 AM | Reply


We happen to live in an age where more details about our troubled past is being revealed and it is very upsetting to some people. These details were purposely omitted from the public record and represented a white washing of history. Many people just can't handle the truth.

Has nothing to do with "past", there is trouble in the present as well that gets whitewashed too. You see it even on this website. People getting upset by the realities and denigrate anyone who brings it up.

#29 | Posted by oneironaut at 2025-09-20 12:22 PM | Reply

The purging of our history is deliberate. It is as if those that are doing this used Orwell's "1984" as an instruction manual.

A few quotes I think are relevant:

"If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought".
We see language being used to corrupt thought all the time now. Redefinitions of CRT, DEI, victims, right and wrong. We see voices and language being shut down, banned. Comedians fired for speaking poorly of The Trump. Of DHS calling for people to turn in people in to be fired for not acquiescing to Trump.

"Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past".
And this is the operating principle of white washing America's history. This is the point. To control. Which leads to the desired result:
"The lie passed into history and became truth".

Or an erasure of history in the above case. This is the utter corruption. A record of history - burning and floating away until nothing is left of our true history. Only what we are told was our history.

"The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command".

#30 | Posted by YAV at 2025-09-20 02:45 PM | Reply

They made a documentary recently about Thomas Jefferson and all they seemed to talk about or discuss about him revolved around slavery. It was utterly ridiculous. I had to turn it off.

#20 | Posted by THEBULL

You're a ------- stupid ----.

#31 | Posted by LegallyYourDead at 2025-09-20 08:43 PM | Reply

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