Trump didn’t do those bad things, according to GOP legislators, bankers, and Trump himself. And if he did, they didn’t count
OJ Simpson decided he could make some “blood money”, as he called it, by writing a “hypothetical” book on the murders of his estranged wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman entitled If I Did It. When it was announced in 2006, the outrage was so overwhelming that the publisher, HarperCollins, owned by Rupert Murdoch, fired the editor, Judith Regan, and cancelled a scheduled Fox network special. The OJ book fiasco appeared to be a rare moment of Murdoch sensitivity, but he was concerned that the association besmirched his own reputation.
A week after Donald Trump’s attorney argued in the DC district court that he could not be prosecuted for his attempted coup culminating in the January 6 assault on the Capitol and could order the assassination of any opponent, Trump took to his Truth Social account on 18 January to insist that he “MUST HAVE COMPLETE & TOTAL PRESIDENTIAL IMMUNITY” even for “EVENTS THAT ‘CROSS THE LINE’”. If the glove fits, you must still acquit.
Trump’s If I Did It moment was followed, not with repulsion, but instead with his former warm embrace by Murdoch’s Fox News, reflexive bended knee by the entire Republican leadership, and Polonius-like advice from JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon to Democrats to “grow up” and “listen” to Maga.
This is something I was just talking to a British friend of mine about, and how they actually do fucking do this.
I am 41. My education did not shy away from a lot of shit. We did the trail of tears in 3rd grade and they really got into it. I am thankful my education was like that. Today they are already banning the trail of tears in certain schools. The thing is, with my education…I heard FUCKING NOTHING about the shit Columbus did. I was raised looking at him as some kind of fucking super amazing wholesome folk hero. They erased his history for my education and, at the time, it FUCKING. WORKED. I was in my early 20’s on some forum, I can’t even remember what, and some dude started listing shit Columbus had done and I was like ‘…yo…what?’
Obviously, in this day and age, its going to be much more difficult to erase history with the resources the kids have that I did not but…this was done to me. History was erased for me and I had to find out on my own.
Fun fact: He was arrested, charged and while most of the really serious charges were dropped, he was still stripped of his nobility for his actions in the Americas.
And yet we gave him a national holiday.
And then the racists didn’t want it for a different reason…
Wikipedia - Columbus Day
I had a similar experience with the Tulsa race massacre, which I first learned of in the HBO Watchmen TV show. At first I thought it was just part of the alternate reality timeline of the show.
We didn’t touch on most of the more modern stuff against black people honestly. That’s another problem with my education. They did not sugarcoat slavery for me at all though I will say that. And that also started young.
Side note: My education doesn’t seem nearly as enlightened as yours. A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn covers the darker side of Columbus’s expeditions in great detail and its eye opening. I knew there was whitewashing of Columbus but wasn’t prepared for the amount/severity.
Fun fact: this book is also published by Harper Collins.