Over at our favorite website for classy headlines and snarky stories, Wonkette, there’s a fall-flat-on-your-face article about a twitter exchange that begins with a post by White House correspondent Lucian Wintrich, who writes for the right-wing conspiracy blog The Gateway Pundit. Seems Mr. Wintrich was none too pleased with a photo of three Native Americans flipping off Mount Rushmore. Below is the photo with his response:
If you’ve been to Rushmore, you may have seen a protest by indigenous peoples. While most national parks have incorporated Native American perspectives into their exhibits, websites and other interpretative materials (histories that were often scrubbed in the past), the fact remains that the land was stolen from its original inhabitants. Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Yellowstone, etc.—Native people were living there when the federal government took possession, and most of them were removed.
In the case of Rushmore, located in South Dakota’s Black Hills, the mountain was a sacred place for the Sioux and other tribes. Not only was it taken by Europeans, renamed and then plundered for gold, but then the invaders’ icons were carved onto the hillside—a real slap in the face.
As awesome as Rushmore is as a work of art, it’s not too hard to imagine why indigenous peoples aren’t doing back flips over it, thus the picture of the three American Indians giving George, Tom, Teddy and Abe the bird.
History buff Lucian Wintrich, however, was having none of it, which prompted his boneheaded response about people who "break into our country" and "steal resources." That prompted a series of humorous, and truthful, replies, especially when it comes to “steal[ing] resources.” Excuse me?! Who stole the land, minerals, bison, wolves, fish and other natural resources?
The most braindead responses come from Wintrich’s cronies who believe, as he does, that ‘Native Indians’ snuck into the continent and stole the land and resources. This exchange is classic:
Why make the trip to do that, go back to your country if you don’t like the country or its history.
This is their country. They were here first
Really? They don’t look British at all
Not at all huh
They don’t look native Indian either
[facepalm]
Another fellow griped about Hispanics who use the Mexican flag as their twitter avatar but don’t want to live in Mexico. Turns out this twitterman’s profile page is framed by a big Irish flag. (It’s okay if you’re white.) To borrow a question from one responder: “How do you not fall over more?”
Wait, it gets better. Mr. Wintrich saw the story about him on Wonkette and doubled down, responding to the website’s headline: Stupidest White House Correspondent On Internet Tells Native Americans To Go Back To Mexico. His reply? “And they should.”
The stupid, it hurts. And these are the people who voted for Trump so he’d build his stupid-ass wall.