American exceptionalism is the mentality that says that the USA is different and superior. The belief that the USA is superior to all other countries is American exceptionalism. The belief that the USA has nothing to learn from other countries is American exceptionalism.
If you believe, contrary to evidence, that the USA is the best at something, that is American exceptionalism and it is magical thinking.
Great Zimbabwe was exceptional in its day as well.
Egypt of the Upper and the Lower Nile set new grounds for how exceptional it was.
Babylon had subsumed the other peoples between the rivers in its exceptionality.
Mansa Musa of Mali, who made Timbuktu a center of world learning, broke Egypt with how exceptionally rich his nation was.
The Roman Empire was exceptional from the Atlantic to the Arabian peninsula.
By this point, there’s one thing we should be very clear what “exceptional” is not: special. Oh, and one other thing that it is not, which you should probably take careful note of: it is not eternal. Enjoy the ride down, because nobody else will.
…You want the left to take “ownership” of having an insane nuclear arsenal capable of destroying the whole world, which was your example of being a standout nation? What would that actually accomplish?
Yeah it would be most unfortunate if people succumbed to the delusion that being exceptional in some ways, that is to say, far from the norm, conveyed any kind of intrinsic superiority to individuals living in the us or prevented the us from squandering good luck.
It would be super sad if, operating under some quasi-relogious delusions of grandeur, people in the US came to embrace denial and delusion when confronted with problems that challenge their faith…
Glad that’s not happening or anything…
Australia also thinks itself pretty exceptional. I mean, we may not be able to annihilate humanity if we feel like it, but, that’s probably for the best?
But we have awesome beaches, we have a continent worth of natural resources, we have some really smart people around, we used to have manufacturing industries, we have this “mateship” thing which is really unique to us for some reason just ask us, what’s not to like?
Then in 1964 some guy wrote a book called The Lucky Country. And to this day, that’s the nickname people have adopted for Australia, because we’re just so exceptionally awesome.
And they all got it exactly wrong. Because the thesis of the book was that Australia was successful because of luck, despite what we were doing, not because we were doing anything to deserve it.
Australia is a lucky country run mainly by second rate people who share its luck. It lives on other people’s ideas, and, although its ordinary people are adaptable, most of its leaders (in all fields) so lack curiosity about the events that surround them that they are often taken by surprise.
The United States of America: the Lucky Empire.
Not even close, and that was in the days before the MAGAts pushed the U.S. to start disengaging from its leadership position as a liberal democracy.
BS. Blaming “negative nellies” on the left for the country’s decline is a stale right-wing talking point that depends on ignorance. Progressives and liberals* can and do claim legitimate responsibility for every advancement that actually made the U.S. a positive standout, going back to the Civil War. Don’t blame “the left” for the retrograde actions of conservatives and the far right*.
[* Travelling under various party banners or none at all.]
Just this.
The end of an Empire
is messy at best.
This Empire is ending
Like all the rest.
Like the Spanish Armada adrift on the sea
We’re adrift in the land of the brave and the home of the free.
Goodbye, goodbye. Goodbye.
I never knew any of that!
I think at its root it’s likely a pretty common psychological vulnerability in people to think they are chosen when they are lucky.
I dunno… that seems to make us sound like exceptional assholes maybe…
You are adorable.
Nice superior act you got going, buddy, but ain’t nobody here buying your bullshit.
And yet less than 4 hours ago you said
So are you confused or a hypocrite?
He’s a
is what he is.
Somehow I really doubt that.
It’s rather frustrating that we are discouraged from actively calling it what it is.
True and I should know better.
Everytime I saw this topic I had two thoughts
We have an exceptional number of guns and an exceptional number of children dead from gun violence.
The racism, homophobia, transphobia and attempted extermination of trans people, misogyny, fascism, worker exploitation, poverty, messed up and often inaccessible health care. Lots of countries have those, sadly. Quite a few are even worse than us. But the guns. Well, the US is very special when it comes to guns and our abject inability to get rid of them. No matter how many people die or are permanently injured. No matter what the gun violence is doing to both the bodies and mental health of our children.
Also it bugs me when people say “america.” We aren’t america. We are the US or the USA. We share america with a whole lot of other countries and people.
And yet this whole thread is full of people saying you are wrong in one way or another, and as far as I can see you did not deign to consider any of them.
We know the difference between friendly humility, and feigning it while you talk over others.
Well, this thread has been an exceptional read.
But ‘e’s bein’ so 'umble, so very 'umble.
Is your spellcheck automatically replacing “excremental” too?
