destroying histories

Oppressing classes, regimes and political groups often destroy the physical evidence of peoples, practises and beliefs they want to erase. This can at worst lead to loss of an entire line of people, or an entire culture. It also often sets back fights for liberation and justice, innovations in science and technology, and other developing practises, by destroying hard-fought knowledge that must later be re-discovered.

Instances

• genocide
• cultural genocide
• book burning
• [[anticapitalism|capitalism]] and [[antifascism|fascism]] contribute to this through selective and insufficient preservation and archival as well as decreased longevity of produced goods
• modern data practises might also contribute to this in small ways data loss data ethics

Resources

• List of destroyed libraries