The Internet’s New Obsession is Polishing the Statue of Liberty

Wouldn’t the Statue of Liberty be better if looking at it could blind you?

Published 3 months ago in Facepalm

When we first received the Statue of Liberty as a gift from France, it wasn’t the green color we know it as today. It was, in fact, an orange-brown — owing to the fact that the statue is made of copper.

The sculptors of the original statue allegedly didn’t realize that this color change would happen; the designer reportedly believed that it would instead become a deeper red. However, over time, we all became accustomed to our green lady in the water, and no one wanted to see it go back to its original shine.

Well, until about a week ago.

A viral thread on X is begging the city of New York to polish the Statue of Liberty. There’s no real reason given for this besides “Why not?,” but some people seem pretty jazzed about the idea.

The problem is that this is actually very stupid, both in the sense of it being a stupid idea and it having stupid consequences.

In 2018, National Park Service spokesman Jerry Willis explained why this will never, ever happen, saying that the patina “is a protective layer that shields the statue from the extreme elements of New York Harbor, like high winds, salt water and air pollution.” Removing it, he said, will actually hurt the statue, not just make it shine.

But, if you don’t care about that and want to destroy this American icon for a couple weeks of having a shiny woman in the harbor, be my guest.