What in the name of dysentery is Kristi Noem talking about?
Daily Kos
On Monday, the official Department of Homeland Security X
account posted an image of a painting, along with the caption,
“Remember your Homeland’s Heritage. New Life in a New Land - Morgan Weistling.”
If you grew up playing the video game “Oregon
Trail,” you know what this evokes: dysentery. The National Park
Service estimates that 30,000 settlers died from it—nearly
10%—on the Oregon Trail alone. That’s 10-15 deaths per mile.
But maybe that’s on brand for today’s conservatives. After
all, they’re bizarrely excited to bring back measles, too.
But dysentery was just the beginning. Gun mishaps,
hypothermia, wild animals, drowning during river crossings, rightly hostile
Indigenous tribes—this was a death gauntlet. It’s just plain weird to
romanticize one of the most brutal chapters of American expansionism.
And that baby in the painting? That poor, nameless baby?
In the mid-1800s, one-third of children
didn’t make it to their 5th birthday according to this study from Our World in Data. Other
estimates suggest that infant mortality was closer to 40-45%
during this era and likely even higher on the trail. Parents often waited a
full year before naming their children because survival was far from
guaranteed, so this little anchor baby likely didn’t have a name yet.
Yes, anchor baby. The Morgan Weistling painting,
which was incorrectly labeled by DHS as “New Life in a New Land,” is titled “A Prayer for a New Life.”
Sounds pretty immigration-y, right? But that’s odd,
considering that conservatives absolutely hate people looking for a better life
somewhere else. Why didn’t these immigrants just stay home?
Meanwhile, Trump’s ancestors hadn’t even made it to America
yet. Neither had most of his wives’. It sure ain’t their “homeland
heritage.”
And stepping back, what does this painting even have to do
with DHS? Are they trying to police vibes now?
It’s just all so weird.
These Trumpists aren’t “tough.” They’re just strange.
