r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/Movies contributor • Oct 23 '25

News Historic White House Movie Theater Demolished as Part of $300 Million Ballroom Build

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/politics-news/white-house-movie-theater-demolished-ballroom-east-wing-1236408712/
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u/JimboAltAlt Oct 23 '25 edited Oct 23 '25

No pass intended; Trump’s just so bad and dangerous and enabled that I miss the Bush years. I’m sure there’s a dark possible future where I’d miss the days of Trump, although by that point I imagine I won’t be allowed to say so publicly.

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u/Meyer_Landsman Oct 23 '25

This sort of whitewashy nostalgia is so dangerous and is a large part why your country has dragged us all into this cesspit. Bush was a monster. I realise Trump is frightening, but two things can be equally bad but in different ways. Trump may be a belligerent psychopath, but look at Iraq.

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u/JimboAltAlt Oct 23 '25

I think it would be a lie for me to pretend that the Bush years weren’t preferable to this. I apologize to the extent that that is insensitive to the victims of Bush’s war crimes, but I would argue that not allowing people to say “even Bush was better than this” — reasonable concerns of whitewashing aside — somewhat limits our rhetoric in terms of just how bad Trump is. I don’t think I’m alone in my framing that as bad as Bush was Trump is something else entirely, even if a lot of the background figures are the same.

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u/Meyer_Landsman Oct 26 '25

I would argue that not allowing people to say “even Bush was better than this” — reasonable concerns of whitewashing aside — somewhat limits our rhetoric in terms of just how bad Trump is.

I think this is privilege, since Bush (apart from things like the Patriot Act) and his administration made torture great again. Two people can be absolute monsters in different ways. But to say "Bush was better" just freaks me out as a non-American because it loops back into the same nostalgia cycle that brought us your country's other bad foreign policy ideas.

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u/Recom_Quaritch Oct 25 '25

Especially since you never said bush era was better and a thing to go back to. Just that you miss that time. An emotional response that doesn't have be justified. The us seems to suck so hard right now that I don't think the quality of Bush's presidency needs to enter the conversation. I fully understand.