“What is American Exceptionalism?”
It’s a façade, a nationalist mythos of being ‘better’ than everyone else on the planet, by the mere happenstance of being born on stolen soil; and of course, that aggrandized and fallacious self perception has never actually included anyone who is BIPOC.
It failed in in the sense that native peoples were not completely eradicated. By that definition the Holocaust “failed” to eradicate the Jews.
American exceptionalism!
The physical infrastructure that’s crumbling everywhere due to Republican underfunding? Must be, because the social services infrastructure present in other advanced economies is absent here.
Only if “us” is the corporate executive and shareholder class consolidating and financialising everything in the direction of monopoly… Not so much the employees whose jobs they’re offshoring, outsourcing, and automating away (instances of which Cory Doctorow and others regularly chronicle).
Many of us are, and understand that Pollyanna views of and fairy tales about the country’s past, present and future and premature declarations of victory don’t help anyone except those who want to maintain the status quo or, y’know, announce that they want to Make America Great Again.
When anyone talks approvingly about “American exceptionalism” that’s a tell, and not a particularly subtle one.
Well, not everyone, obviously; just the white kind of people.
Would you say that American is… an egregious nation?
@anon61221983 already schooled you, but I feel the need to reiterate; without the subjugation and exploitation of entire countries, this country as we know it would not exist.
Hmm. Has any other country had like, about 1000 military installation spread all over the globe? Has any mounted a “foreign” death count as high as ours? Has any had a military budget that’s as big as like, that of the next ten highest combined? Has any been so good at toppling so many other governments and destroying other economies while carrying on as if such things never even happened?
Sure, other murderous empires have come and gone, but I think there’s a good argument to be made that the U.S. is “exceptional” at it.
Does exceptional mean the most destructive and murderous ever? Well, that seems to me like a distraction from something more worth acknowledging, that is, how exceptionally bad most USians are at seeing their country as a self-serving empire.
American ideals are admirable in the abstract, but not so much in the way they were carried out, or more recently just discarded completely.
That said, “Fuck you, I’ve got mine” is not an attitude normally held up as an ideal in any country, and not a recipe for long-term success either inside or outside the borders of the USA. When your oligarchs move to New Zealand with their money, do you really think what is left will look like the City on a Hill to the rest of the world?
Americans discussing Exceptionalism?
Everyone else:
I want to live where you live!
Because where I live, our utility grids are suffering the ineptitude of privatization (see: Texas), our water infrastructure is decrepit and underserved (see: Flint, MI, various places in the southeast, and Colorado and nearby states), our roads and bridges are crumbling, and what public transportation we do have is threatened by not even being able to find enough bus drivers to get kids to school in parts of the country.
We have worse and slower broadband access than several countries.
The agriculture sector propped up by huge public subsidies that reward very unsustainable farming practices?
I wish I was as optimistic as you are. I see little pockets of hope, but nationally? No way.
I know it’s against your nature or something to say more than ten words or so at a time, but i as an American welcome your input!
Plenty of other empires have been a brutal and destructive over a longer period of time, too.
Sure - and plenty of people certainly have done so. I’m just saying that I might not agree with that assessment. You know I’m certainly not downplaying the violence and destruction of American empire, just noting that not everyone agrees with the argument of negative exceptionalism.
Yep, I do agree that not everyone agrees with it.
It’s just so alien (or parallel universe). Everyone looks the same, talks the same, okay, the mailboxes are blue, and then Americans start talking about exceptionalism or manifest destiny and you know you’re not in Thunder Bay.
It’s certainly a great way to avoid talking about real problems and change. Declare something as part of exceptionalism, and suddenly there’s an extra wall for reformers to break through.
we can post real swears here
Chattering about things that need fixing while waiting for reformers to come along fix them really does seem like another common USian (if not uniquely USian) habit.
Well said and the same to @anon61221983 who has posted something similar twice. I agree with the both of you.
Have you even seen any other country?
America’s zero carbon energy supply is currently at 41%, with 20% from coal. Canada is at 83% with 10% from coal, which is only in Alberta and set to be eliminated by the end of this year. Norway is at 99% zero carbon energy. Sweden is at 98%. This isn’t just good for the planet. Carbon-free energy is where all the growth and innovation will be in the future. These countries are set up to succeed economically by making this transition. The US is decades behind on all this.
That grand agricultural sector you talk about consists of California, which is running out of water very very fast. They are literally pumping the aquifers dry so fast that when a driller has finished his rounds of the almond farms to deepen the wells, the first one needs deepening again. The rest of US agriculture is devoted primarily to industrial corn for sugar and cattle feed. Hardly a robust self-sufficient food supply.
Future economic growth and prosperity will come from social justice. There aren’t enough white men to do the important jobs anymore. The US is decades behind all other western nations on this as well, and currently moving backward on womens’ rights, queer rights, immigration policy, and social safety nets. The US’ remarkable growth in the post-war period is due pretty much entirely to social systems like welfare, unions, and empowering women. All that has been steadily rolled back since by your friendly local fascists.
Infrastructure? Goodness, don’t get me started. Have you driven on roads in the US and Canada? The difference is hilariously stark. America is falling apart, literally. Places like Flint and Jackson can’t even keep their water clean. Have you looked at the number of bridges falling apart in America? The number of literal collapses in recent years?
My goodness friend, experience more of the world before making speeches like that. Other western countries are very very nice places and way way ahead of where the US is in terms of what the future will look like.
Insert the “America Isn’t the Greatest Country In the World” speech from The Newsroom here.
Yes. Ancient Rome qualifies for all of these (well, if you substitute “globe” with “known world”)
(Which only reinforces the points made by you and others of course, because Rome famously fell in the end)
