• Pennomi@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I know this is an unpopular opinion, but statues of real people are cringe… and Mount Rushmore is basically maximum cringe by that measure.

  • Blackout@fedia.io
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    4 months ago

    I’ve seen them before and they are ugly. None of them would have wanted their face there so who is actually being honored?

      • PugJesus@lemmy.worldOP
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        4 months ago

        While Teddy was the self-aggrandizing type who probably wouldn’t have objected to having his face carved into a mountain, Rushmore wasn’t even proposed until long after Teddy’s political career was over.

          • Blackout@fedia.io
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            4 months ago

            Yes, he protected land like this from developers. He’s the reason we have national parks. No way he would have approved this.

  • Olgratin_Magmatoe@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    It should be given back to the natives, with reparations. I wouldn’t be surprised if they wanted to remove the faces and attempt to restore it.

      • PugJesus@lemmy.worldOP
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        4 months ago

        Hey, guess what - wanting a historical wrong to be corrected by having a polity live up to its treaty obligations, however belatedly, by ceding a piece of land on which a rather ugly monument exists on and telling the original owners ‘do what you want with it’ is not the equivalent of volunteering for ethnic cleansing.

        • RubberElectrons@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Might be a cool opportunity to build cohesion even. What if we (in consult with the Lakota whose land it annually is) build in a few cool people from other tribes too (e.g. chief Seattle, and others from all over the country). That could make it feel more like a monument to all of us.

          Generally not a fan of defacing nature though. There’s a joke in there somewhere but it’s too early.

      • zaph@sh.itjust.works
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        4 months ago

        If that’s what it takes to make reparations happen I’ll gladly give mine. Thankfully that isn’t what reparations would require so you just look like a racist asshole.

  • Krafty Kactus@sopuli.xyz
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    4 months ago

    I just went to the black hills area and I MUCH preferred the Crazy Horse memorial. If you hate Rushmore then I think you would love it too. It actually means something, looks cooler, and isn’t funded by the government.

    I find it interesting that nobody else had mentioned it.

    • PugJesus@lemmy.worldOP
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      4 months ago

      I don’t mind the Feds funding art. I only mind them funding shitty art that violates local customs and treaties with sovereign tribes. Like, zero redeeming qualities here with Rushmore.

    • iamtrashman1312@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Me too. I went there when I was 10 or 11, and as a child all I noticed was how incongruous it was with everything. I wasn’t awed by it, and my parents seemed sort of put out with how I didn’t care for it compared to my sisters.

      I’d like to pretend that’s some kind of deep political sentiment, but really I think it’s just aesthetically displeasing if you don’t have a thing for monuments

      • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Adults get weird when the indoctrinating they and society put so much effort into doesn’t take hold. So much so, that they find some mental illness like Autism to label the child with.

      • PugJesus@lemmy.worldOP
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        4 months ago

        I dunno, I have a thing for monuments and I still find it aesthetically displeasing. It’s pretty ugly.

      • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Same here. If you have no attachment to the figures portrayed, it fails at the kind of gravitas that you’d think an entire mountainside would/should command. It’s a strange thing.

    • kaboom36@ani.social
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      4 months ago

      I remember one of the massive air compressors they had on display there better than the monument itself…

      Though I am a giant nerd for that sort of thing so it might just be me

      • Dr_DOOM_@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!.. What kind of psi? You said massive, was it mobile? Did it have any mods?.. I need to know!

        • kaboom36@ani.social
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          4 months ago

          It was years ago so I don’t remember most details, I can’t remember anything about pressure, it was stationary, single cylinder, with a flywheel at least 6 feet tall and I don’t think it had any modifications made I would have loved to see it running but I don’t think it had been ran in at least a 70 years

  • Dorkyd68@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Even as a young child I was very disappointed seeing it in person. Very underwhelming. The only cool part I thought was looking through the binocular things and spying on other tourists. I was an odd kid whatever

    • Thebeardedsinglemalt@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Same thing with seeing the Mona Lisa in person. It’s a very small painting against the a far wall in a special room, and that room is packed shoulder-to-shoulder, asshole-to-elbow shithead tourists. Kinda cool to see it in person I guess, but not really worth the effort

    • BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      The only cool part I thought was looking through the binocular things and spying on other tourists. I was an odd kid whatever

      Yes, that is indeed extremely strange behavior. I don’t believe that it has ever been reported before /s

  • suction@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Mt Rushmore is a very good symbol of the US in that way. Looks impressive in marketing and media, but tacky and small IRL

    • smb@lemmy.ml
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      4 months ago

      i think its also a very good symbol of how the US just forgets about even their very own laws at a snap of a finger and that no nation in the world (not even the us itself) can ever trust them with anything. like for example the so called freedom of religion when we’re at the Sioux Blackbhills anyway.

    • czardestructo@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      You have to park in a garage and walk down a narrow path lined with people trying to sell you shit. Its more like visiting a mall with aggressive salesmen than a national park. It was the worst stop I made during a cross country road trip.