What does everyone think about American Exceptionalism?

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CuriousButDepressed
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01 May 2017, 5:46 pm

The idea of American Exceptionalism seems to emphasize the concept that America is a uniquely superior nation, one who's history is far different then that of other nations. I've noticed that another tendency in American Exceptionalism is a tendency to gloss over negative events that have occurred in the United States, such as the mass genocide of Native Americans, slavery and the Jim Crow laws. I'm revolted that some people do not acknowledge America's faults and claim it is a nation that is more exceptional then any other. I lament the fact that more people are not honest about their nation's history and will gloss over any mistake it's made to extoll its virtues instead? What do you guys think about American Exceptionalism? I see it as a weapon that has the potential to make citizens delusional about the truth of their country.



248RPA
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01 May 2017, 6:34 pm

Every country feels exeptionalism to at least some extent. Why should America be an exception?

I'm not saying it's okay. The "we're better/different than the rest!" feeling just something that a lot of countries experience, I find, and it's been present through all of world history. It's human nature to feel exceptional, and to gloss over evidence that suggest that "you suck". We also see this in Asperger extremists. So don't be too shocked by it.


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01 May 2017, 7:02 pm

The term “American Exceptionalism” isn’t as old as people imagine, and the Founders didn’t coin it. Stalin did. When the American Communist Jay Lovestone informed him, in 1929, that America’s working class wouldn’t be joining the party, the Soviet dictator rejected what he called this “heresy of American Exceptionalism.”

The term was redefined a few decades later and didn’t catch on immediately: Before the mid-1990s the term appeared in national publications fewer than 500 times. In 1996, sociologist Seymour Martin Lipset used it to explain why the U.S. is an “outlier” when compared with the rest of the world. Noting that “various seemingly contradictory aspects of American society are intimately related”—religiosity co-existed with individualism, optimism with high crime rates—he described America’s uniqueness as “a mixed blessing.”

As a Presidential candidate Donald Trump didn’t care for the term. He told a group of Republicans in 2015, he thought it impolite: “I don’t want to say, ‘We’re exceptional. we’re more exceptional.’ Because essentially we’re saying, ‘We’re more outstanding than you . . .’ ”

I see no reason whatsoever to "take exception" to the phrase "American Exceptionalism", unless it is used as a sad excuse for mediocrity. People having difficulty with the term because of its arrogance is one thing, but to make excuses for moral relativism and mediocrity is far more appalling . . .



CuriousButDepressed
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01 May 2017, 7:04 pm

248RPA wrote:
Every country feels exeptionalism to at least some extent. Why should America be an exception?

I'm not saying it's okay. The "we're better/different than the rest!" feeling just something that a lot of countries experience, I find, and it's been present through all of world history. It's human nature to feel exceptional, and to gloss over evidence that suggest that "you suck". We also see this in Asperger extremists. So don't be too shocked by it.


Then how come I don't believe America is exceptional and I'm perfectly willing to pick out its flaws? I like to see my nation honestly and only will view myself as exceptional if there is legitimate proof that I am exceptional. I don't like acknowledging my flaws in public, but you bet I always admit them with people I trust in private. Arrogance disgusts me.



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01 May 2017, 7:11 pm

CuriousButDepressed wrote:
248RPA wrote:
Every country feels exeptionalism to at least some extent. Why should America be an exception?

I'm not saying it's okay. The "we're better/different than the rest!" feeling just something that a lot of countries experience, I find, and it's been present through all of world history. It's human nature to feel exceptional, and to gloss over evidence that suggest that "you suck". We also see this in Asperger extremists. So don't be too shocked by it.


Then how come I don't believe America is exceptional and I'm perfectly willing to pick out its flaws? I like to see my nation honestly and only will view myself as exceptional if there is legitimate proof that I am exceptional. I don't like acknowledging my flaws in public, but you bet I always admit them with people I trust in private. Arrogance disgusts me.

Sorry. I should've clarified that I was talking about a majority of people in a nation/time period. I wasn't trying to imply that every single person thinks that way. Of course in every nation/time period there will be people who recognise that it has flaws.


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CuriousButDepressed
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02 May 2017, 8:32 am

248RPA wrote:
CuriousButDepressed wrote:
248RPA wrote:
Every country feels exeptionalism to at least some extent. Why should America be an exception?

I'm not saying it's okay. The "we're better/different than the rest!" feeling just something that a lot of countries experience, I find, and it's been present through all of world history. It's human nature to feel exceptional, and to gloss over evidence that suggest that "you suck". We also see this in Asperger extremists. So don't be too shocked by it.


Then how come I don't believe America is exceptional and I'm perfectly willing to pick out its flaws? I like to see my nation honestly and only will view myself as exceptional if there is legitimate proof that I am exceptional. I don't like acknowledging my flaws in public, but you bet I always admit them with people I trust in private. Arrogance disgusts me.

Sorry. I should've clarified that I was talking about a majority of people in a nation/time period. I wasn't trying to imply that every single person thinks that way. Of course in every nation/time period there will be people who recognise that it has flaws.


I know that. I just don't understand why most people are reluctant to openly admit the flaws of their nation and why people will see their country as the best, even when there's no proof to back that idea up.



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02 May 2017, 9:01 pm

Some people are just guided by their emotions and ignore logic. I don't know why, just that it happens. Perhaps they are doing that to try to protect themselves from the ugly truth.


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CuriousButDepressed
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03 May 2017, 7:50 am

248RPA wrote:
Some people are just guided by their emotions and ignore logic. I don't know why, just that it happens. Perhaps they are doing that to try to protect themselves from the ugly truth.


I feel like it's either dirty cowardice or some sort of NT groupthink dogma crap. Either way, I can't respect either reason.



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03 May 2017, 12:23 pm

Our labor colonies have learned good things from us, and now (really, really) want to go on with their lives, independently.



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03 May 2017, 6:00 pm

CuriousButDepressed wrote:
The idea of American Exceptionalism seems to emphasize the concept that America is a uniquely superior nation, one who's history is far different then that of other nations. I've noticed that another tendency in American Exceptionalism is a tendency to gloss over negative events that have occurred in the United States, such as the mass genocide of Native Americans, slavery and the Jim Crow laws. I'm revolted that some people do not acknowledge America's faults and claim it is a nation that is more exceptional then any other. I lament the fact that more people are not honest about their nation's history and will gloss over any mistake it's made to extoll its virtues instead? What do you guys think about American Exceptionalism? I see it as a weapon that has the potential to make citizens delusional about the truth of their country.

CuriousButDepressed wrote:
I don't like acknowledging my flaws in public, but you bet I always admit them with people I trust in private. Arrogance disgusts me.

CuriousButDepressed wrote:
I just don't understand why most people are reluctant to openly admit the flaws of their nation and why people will see their country as the best, even when there's no proof to back that idea up.

CuriousButDepressed wrote:
I feel like it's either dirty cowardice or some sort of NT groupthink dogma crap. Either way, I can't respect either reason.

The quote, here, where you said you don't acknowledge your faults, publicly, is it, in-a-nutshell, IMO. What if people AREN'T being arrogant, and are just simply not talking about it, PUBLICLY? I've PMed with a few people, lately, and said that I didn't want to say what I was saying privately, publicly----but, that doesn't mean that I'm glossing-over ANYTHING.

I'm thinking it's quite possible that you are using words like "revolted", "lament", "disgusts", and "cowardice" because you don't want to be judged by NON-USAans as being like those other USAans whom you think are arrogant.

As for slavery, etc.: I'm thinking that NO ONE would want to be reminded, for the rest of their lives, of a really bad thing they did, in their youth. Would YOU like to be reminded PUBLICLY, for the rest of your life, that you pooped in your pants in your youth (allegory for slavery / bad things, etc., U.S. did)? Now, obviously, your poopin' in your pants isn't NEAR the magnitude of the slavery era----nor, did your poopin' in your pants, affect millions of people----but, surely, you can understand the similarity.

Just imagine how you would feel if your mother (or someone else close to you) told somebody that you didn't know, that you pooped in your pants----now, try to imagine that being written in books and on the Internet for billions of people all over the world, to read, for the next 150 years, and remind you of it. That is how most USAans view the bad things that have happened, 150 years ago (+/-). EVERYBODY knows those bad things happened in the U.S.----but, is it necessary to be reminded of it, constantly? No one is denying those things happened----no one is glossing-over anything...

Also, haven't you ever spoken to a person in public, and told them everything you knew about whatever they brought-up in conversation, or told them that they were wrong about whatever they brought-up in conversation, by saying, something like: "Actually, that's not true..."? Couldn't that be considered arrogance, on your part? I think NTs would say, "yes"----and, IMO, alot of Aspies would, TOO!! I mean, I think Aspies, sort-of LIVE to continually prove to people that they're good / smarter / better than what most people think of them, just as some USAans do, because BOTH Aspies and USAans have been hearing / reminded-of, their entire lives, that they're bad, wrong, weird, less than, etc., etc., etc.----and, we ALL (Aspies, ASDers, NTs, USAans, doesn't matter) respond to people, while simultaneously NOT divulging that we pooped in our pants, when we were young!!

Now, should I consider what YOU do, when you DON'T admit PUBLICLY that you pooped in your pants, when you were young, as "dirty cowardice"? Well, then----don't think that of USAans who don't want to constantly bring-up slavery, etc. (the US pooping in their pants), either.





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03 May 2017, 6:14 pm

I believe that American Exceptionalism exists. A lot of innovation that has shaped the modern world has come from The States. I worry that this is changing With the election of Trump it seems that people do not value the skills that are necessary to be exceptional.



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03 May 2017, 6:28 pm

In the US schoolchildren are taught that the US won the war of 1812.


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03 May 2017, 10:05 pm

The U.S. is now actually nearly a FULL-fledged «communist» nation (and has been for decades). Many «documentaries» regarding this with over-whelming amounts of damning evidence have already been produced.


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03 May 2017, 10:18 pm

Ban-Dodger wrote:
The U.S. is now actually nearly a FULL-fledged «communist» nation (and has been for decades). Many «documentaries» regarding this with over-whelming amounts of damning evidence have already been produced.


Uh... Excuse me? I sincerely hope this is sarcasm. Any more of this "cultural marxism" BS and I'll throw a flipping fit.



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03 May 2017, 11:19 pm

I think there's a sentiment of America being superior as a result of our history of trying to be different than everyone (ie. the Europeans and English). Now that sentiment is starting to fade, at least in most of the Blue states and I can't really speak for the Red states.



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03 May 2017, 11:32 pm

What do I think about it? I don't think you want to know.

Try to remember a time when you got violently sick and were hunched over the toilet bowl, thinking you were going to die, or worried that you weren't going to die so your misery would end. Imagine having a mouth full of wriggling live worms and insects and being forced to slowly chew and swallow them. Imagine having leeches all over your body feasting on your blood. Imagine walking very slowly through a thick patch of thorn bushes stark naked while experiencing a migraine headache.

That basically sums up to what I think about it. I told you that you didn't want to know. :x