Live streams, decrees, or viral videos: at the table of public discourse and political incorrectness, every word is worth its weight in clicks. Among the guests: collective landmarks and national memory, while trends and political agendas cut across the plate.
Collective memory, a silent battlefield
War memorials, national anthems, representations… These are all ’places of memory”, (Pierre Nora) that define a community over time and form the backdrop to the national narrative.
But what remains when these symbols are erased or redefined?
A word crossed out, a date deleted, and whole sections of the national narrative falter for better or for worse: in 2021, ‘cancel culture’ has managed to make rename the Uncle Ben’s brand to Ben’s Original in order to remove its connotations with slavery, while in March 2025, the US government banned the words “gender” and ’climate change” from its government websites.
The result is a silent battlefield, where history is played out through social mobilisation and language corrections, under the spotlight of public debate and political agendas.
Founding myths, heroes, narratives… the balance is fragile. When a government rewrites its official dictionary, it locks down an entire section of public debate; when a trend cancels an expression, it reorients collective perception; when a minister considers abolishing public holidays, it is not simply a change to the calendar; it is part of a process of redrawing the milestones of collective memory.
‘What we no longer name, what we no longer honour, eventually ceases to exist.’
Places of memory are therefore everyone’s business: from politicians to trend-setters, everyone is rewriting history and redefining national identity, sometimes to counter revisionism (see the #decolonizeyourhistory movement led by Native American communities on TikTok) or to counter a social trend (see Donald Trump’s anti-woke stance by removing the words “transgender” and ’diversity” from official documents).
How can we distinguish between legitimate adjustment and a cultural agenda?
Memory is not a fixed legacy, but a work in progress: it is built, defended and shared. With the aim of preserving and passing on the invisible threads of the collective narrative, every word, every date and every symbol counts, and the game has only just begun.
America first, memory second?
“Gender”, “climate”, “abortion”… 12 March 2025 marks the official launch of the American memory and lexical revolution: two months after his arrival at the White House, US President Donald Trump is cutting funding for federal programmes related to diversity, equality and inclusion.
These budget cuts will be accompanied by the removal of approximately 200 words on these issues from government websites, while a cascade of decrees removes access to the archives of the Ministry of Defence.
In fact, 26,000 pieces of American history that have been made inaccessible, closing the doors to a diverse and fragmented memory, but above all one that is disturbing to an executive wishing to reshape the national narrative. At the same time, the Department of Education is taking drastic measures by laying off half of its staff ahead of its dismantling.
According to Romain Huret, a historian specialising in the United States, these orchestrated purges are aimed at erasing the work of collecting and archiving that documents the diversity and multicultural history of the United States.
When the state censors and deconstructs
Latest media outcry: the announcement of a new withdrawal of the United States from UNESCO, effective at the end of 2026. For the US President, UNESCO’s support for ‘divisive social and cultural causes’, coupled with a ‘globalist and ideological agenda’, is definitely the last straw.
For Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, this withdrawal weighs heavily and compromises both heritage preservation and education and scientific research. After a relationship punctuated by unexpected departures (1984, 2018, and finally, 2026), the context may have changed, but the motivations remain the same.
More than a financial disengagement, a deeper rupture is at work: between the rejection of multilateral cultural and scientific cooperation and the very denial of the idea of a universal heritage, it is the return of the traditional ’America first” that is gradually coming to light.
This is not the first attempt to reshape American history: in 1981, Ronald Reagan had already ridden the wave of patriotic nationalism, reviving the role of the Founding Fathers and leaving historians to piece together the fragmented episodes of American culture. But never before had his fascination with the conquest of the West erased entire sections of national history.
This is a brutal turning point in memory politics that creates a knowledge gap, hinders research, and ‘even goes beyond the McCarthy witch hunts,’ notes Romain Huret.
But if scientific and historical neutrality gives way to partisan interests, what becomes of collective memory?
Information overload and memory activism: the great paradox
Faced with a flood of ephemeral content and the erosion of temporal reference points, a new generation of ‘archive geeks’ nicknamed the Data Rebels, is mobilising to preserve American public data. For Data Refuge, an initiative launched in 2017, documentation is the key to preserving memories.
Beyond the circle of experts, social media is becoming a vault and a laboratory for national narratives: trends, clicks and hashtags are finding their way into places of memory, where every share and comment helps to enrich and defend collective history.
French pragmatism: public holidays sacrificed on the altar of the economy
On the other side of the Atlantic, economic pragmatism is depoliticising the gesture: fiscal rigour and urgency are forcing the symbolism of 8 May to be relegated to the realm of budgetary variables. With a target of 43.8 billion in deficit reduction, the famous ‘mois de mai en gruyère’ (May full of holes) could be solved.
However, 8 May has not always been a public holiday: added to the calendar in 1953 by François Mitterrand, it still struggled to win the hearts of the French people in 1986. An INA street interview conducted that same year revealed that most people were still unaware of its significance. If this date is struggling to take root in the collective memory, what will become of its legacy once it is removed from the calendar?
This questioning raises a crucial issue: under what conditions can symbols be redefined and history be honoured in a lasting way?
By Méline Prajet
Sources :
https://www.radiofrance.fr/personnes/jean-pierre-azema?p=2
https://www.radiofrance.fr/personnes/jean-pierre-azema?p=2
https://time.com/7304764/trump-unesco-world-heritage/
https://www.ina.fr/ina-eclaire-actu/8-mai-victoire-seconde-guerre-mondiale-micro-trottoir
https://www.tiktok.com/@ina.fr/video/7501963231016062240
