Mount Rushmore Sucks and More Fourth of July Surprises - New episode of Even More News with No Ads!

Perhaps it's simply being born and raised in the UK, we don't tend to tear down our history or monuments, even if there's a checkered past there. We simply provide added context. Yanks tend to tear down anything they don't like or that is inconvenient.

Harry Moore

I don't think so. It is an achievement in engineering an art at the time, even if an intentionally tourist bait one. I think they should simply get the profit from its maintenance and tourist revenue. Let them benefit from it.

Harry Moore

Actually it's only partially a myth and I defended the spray painting of blm on a historic church. They didn't desecrate a mountain, and at that they are a conquered people. For better or worse, the reality of the conquered is concessions.

Harry Moore

Yeah, I think so- although if necessary I think the US should be willing to provide resources for altering or demolishing the monument, since the US government was the body that created the problem in the first place.

Alexander Powers

Should the tearing down of the monument be the sole discretion of the native Americans that manage that land then?.

I think it would be great to treat Mt Rushmore like the Sphinx - and have their faces removed.

Amber Davidson

Like imagine if someone painted a bunch of profane symbols on St. Peter's Basilica, like a bunch of anti-Christian symbols or just something vulgar, and then gave it back on the condition that the Vatican make sure those symbols were kept on there. That wouldn't be a fair compromise. The problem is we took something sacred from the Lakota people and defaced it with the images of our historical figures, some of which were key in the genocide of all kinds of Native American groups and at least one of which is famously quoted as saying, “I don’t go so far as to think that the only good Indians are the dead Indians, but I believe nine out of every 10 are. And I shouldn’t like to inquire too closely into the case of the tenth.” So yeah, we'd basically be saying "you can have your sacred monument back as long as you keep and maintain the face of a man that said at least 9 out of 10 of you would be better off dead." The only just thing to do is admit it was wrong to deface it in the first place and return it to the people it belongs to unconditionally.

Alexander Powers

Actually, it's a myth that the pyramids were built by slaves (and possibly the sphinx too but IIRC they were not built even close to the same time). But that's kind of a side point; the main issue with Mt. Rushmore is not that it was built by slaves, it's that it was a desecration of a culture's sacred monument. Giving it back but insisting it be maintained would be like if someone desecrated St. Peter's Basilica and then "gave it back" to the Vatican on the condition that they keep and maintain the desecration. It would be an insult to do that.

Alexander Powers

By the token of tearing down Mt Rushmore, you'd also need to destroy Pyramids and the Sphinx as they also owned slaves. Mt Rushmore is a great achievement in art and engineering at the time. My suggested compromise on that would be to give the native Americans the land on agreement that they keep and maintain the monument. They should also receive the profits from the tourism.

Harry Moore