Authoritarians need to control history because if you understand history, it provides a foundation to judge the actions of those currently in power and damages

Authoritarians need to control history because if you understand history, it provides a foundation to judge the actions of those currently in power and damages their legitimacy. As soon as authoritarians are able to consolidate power, they go after intellectuals, chroniclers of history, journalists, and other people who ground themselves in reality. Reason is the natural enemy of authority. Nothing is more telling than deletion of a graph that shows the consequence of poor policy decisions, rather than addressing it or changing policy, and we can expect to experience this literally and metaphorically until American's realize we aren't exceptional because we are American, but because our forefathers lived out American values, and right now we have abandoned American values.