The Museum of Natural History removes Teddy Roosevelt’s statue. Conservatives have an opinion.

A statue of Teddy Roosevelt, that has been outside the American Museum of Natural History in New York City since 1940, has been removed. It is not that people objected to Teddy Roosevelt. It is that the image of him riding a horse, towering over a Native American and a Black man, smacks of white hierarchical colonialism.

As the museum reported on its website,

“The statue was meant to celebrate Theodore Roosevelt … as a devoted naturalist and author of works on natural history. At the same time, the statue itself communicates a racial hierarchy that the Museum and members of the public have long found disturbing.”

The statue is not being hidden away. It will be on a long-term loan to the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library due to open in 2026, in North Dakota, where Roosevelt ranched in in the Badlands from 1884-1887.

Predictably conservatives are outraged. And they took to the right-wing social media website ‘Gettr’ to express their opinions. Needless to say, there was little nuance — but no lack of irony.

Here is ‘Goodcatt’s’ contribution to the conversation. He says that history is not there to be erased or destroyed. Yet dollars to donuts he is both anti-CRT and a huge fan of book-burning — metaphorical or otherwise.

Education expert ‘101american’ adds their two cents, saying, “you know, when you erase history, all you are left with, are lies…” No argument from me there. Except moving a statue from one place to another doesn’t “erase history”.

As Gettr is a conservative site, we can expect racism to be a common theme. And ‘oldass65’ doesn't hide his bigotry under a basket. In no time he gets his licks in on MLK, whom he finds “offensive”. And as for his “wasn’t perfect” crack about Sitting Bull, let’s note he was a warrior, fighting for his country against an invading army. Whereas, the Confederates were traitors fighting against their own country.

‘VeeTwin’ also boards the MLK hate train. He rages against ‘cancel culture’ by saying he’s going to cancel the civil rights icon. You have to be blind to irony to criticize someone for doing something while you threaten to do the same thing.

‘Seth Czerepac’ promotes the ‘liberals are ignorant, racist, revisionist historians’ meme. But he transcends the usual party line by adding the Statue of Liberty to the mix. Although I’m not quite sure I follow his logic that a robed woman is “sexist, misogynistic, transphobic and non-inclusive”. 

And surely liberals are 100% in favor of the message written on the base of the statue, while conservatives are 100% opposed.

“Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Welcoming immigrants — especially the homeless, wretched, huddled refuse — Is not something you will find on a conservative’s ‘to-do’ list. Especially after Tucker Carlson warns the fearful every night that these ‘rapists’ are trying to replace white Americans.

‘corvettshell’ subscribes to conservatism’s favorite projection — that Liberals are ignorant. And to it, he adds that following Biden will lead to an early grave.

Does he live under a rock? Or is he just dumb? He certainly seems to be unaware of the statistics that show that, if you get vaccinated, you stand a far greater chance of surviving Covid — while he plays for the team that is vaccine-resistant. 

‘Semper Fi’ is an exemplar of the confusion that many conservatives on this Gettr comment  stream suffer from. To wit, that a ‘natural history’ museum is a museum of ‘history’. Educated people, on the other hand, understand that natural history is a survey of the earth, its biota, and the anthropology of its various human communities. It is a subject taught in the science department, not the history department.

‘JMP33’ provides more deluded commentary when he says, “Can’t tear down the national parks this great President, and Rough Rider signed into legislation”. Who does this defender of America’s ecological heritage think is trying to drill and mine their way across the national parks? Here’s a hint, it isn’t the left.

I could go on. But the comment stream is endless and depressing. And I think you get the point.