The Myth Of American Exceptionalism

How tired are you of hear­ing the phrase American-excep­tion­al­ism thrown around to deride oth­er nations?
What is this excep­tion­al­ism you ask? After all, this term has been thrown around by Liberals like Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Conservatives like lying Ted Cruz and every­one in between.

So what is it?
The web­site [the​week​.com] a high­ly ranked site on Google seem to be the go-to author­i­ty on this ques­tion.
The site argues quote; “One does­n’t have to use the term to believe in the under­ly­ing con­cept. But the phrase has a his­to­ry that helps us to under­stand the cur­rent hyper­bol­ic use”.
Okay, I get that, but I nev­er latch onto any­thing except when I am con­vinced of its authen­tic­i­ty, so I’m going to need more meat on these bones.

Well the site did give more and for those of you who are inter­est­ed I will pro­vide a link to that site right here https://​the​week​.com/​a​r​t​i​c​l​e​s​/​6​5​4​5​0​8​/​w​h​a​t​-​e​x​a​c​t​l​y​-​a​m​e​r​i​c​a​n​-​e​x​c​e​p​t​i​o​n​a​l​ism
I need­ed a pre­cise expla­na­tion some­thing I can sink my teeth into and sure enough, here it is.


American excep­tion­al­ism the site argues; is not the same as say­ing the United States is “dif­fer­ent” from oth­er coun­tries. It does­n’t just mean that the U.S. is “unique.” Countries, like peo­ple, are all dif­fer­ent and unique, even if many share some under­ly­ing char­ac­ter­is­tics. Exceptionalism requires some­thing far more: a belief that the U.S. fol­lows a path of his­to­ry dif­fer­ent from the laws or norms that gov­ern oth­er coun­tries.

That’s the essence of American excep­tion­al­ism: The U.S. is not just a big­ger and more pow­er­ful coun­try — but an excep­tion. It is the bear­er of free­dom and lib­er­ty, and moral­ly supe­ri­or to some­thing called “Europe.” Never mind the dif­fer­ences with­in Europe or the fact that “the world” is big­ger than the U.S. and Europe. The “Europe” ver­sus “America” dichoto­my is the cru­cible in which American excep­tion­al­ist think­ing formed.

Yup excep­tion­al­ly hor­rif­ic, this is what ear­ly vot­ing looked like in LA coun­ty, the cen­ter of Democratic sup­port in the state of California



Okay, so let me dis­sect this a lit­tle, start­ing with, “the excep­tion­al­ism of America is not a sce­nario in which America is com­pared to the rest of the world, just Europe”.
Strange, con­sid­er­ing that America only has about five per­cent of the world’s pop­u­la­tion at about 325,000.000 and Europe hov­ers at 742,848,889.
Funny that Asia the worlds most pop­u­lous con­ti­nent weren’t even con­sid­ered in this con­test of exceptionalism.

Early vot­ing lines in Miami Dade County, these excp­tion­al peo­ple do not seem to be wait­ing to cast a vote for Ron Desantis



What’s more, the iden­ti­fy­ing char­ac­ter­is­tics of this con­cept as far as the [week​.com] sees it is that it [America], is the bear­er of free­dom and lib­er­ty, and is moral­ly supe­ri­or to some­thing called “Europe.“
I don’t know where to begin with this, the Europeans, for the most part, were large­ly also involved in the pogrom vis­it­ed on the African peo­ples,
In fact, most European pow­ers at the time carved out pieces of the African Continent for their own exploita­tion.
But Europe had its come to Jesus moment and real­ized that own­ing oth­er human beings was not such a good idea long before America ever did.
In fact, it may be argued that many in America today are still uncon­vinced about the despi­ca­ble inhu­man­i­ty of that specter.
There is your excep­tion­al­ism, there is your moral superiority.

Exceptionally long lines in north Miami large­ly black and brown peo­ple wait­ing patient­ly to vote as polling sites run out of vot­ing forms and machines break down. Exceptional indeed.



Any sys­tem which enslaves parts of its pop­u­la­tion, all while mur­der­ing, rap­ing, beat­ing and demor­al­iz­ing them and appro­pri­at­ing their his­to­ry, for hun­dreds of years design­ing laws which take their human­i­ty and their dig­ni­ty has some gall brag­ging about moral supe­ri­or­i­ty.
The idea that even as there are still entrenched forces hell-bent on pre­vent­ing oth­ers from vot­ing, and as long as they are hell-bent on dehu­man­iz­ing them by hav­ing their [race sol­diers] pose as police offi­cers, and as long as they gun down the inno­cent and are not held account­able then any claim of moral supe­ri­or­i­ty is mer­it­less braggadocio.

These peo­ple of col­or in Florida, forced to stand in long lines do not feel excep­tion­al. There is noth­ing excep­tion­al about this.



Exceptionalism is doing, not claim­ing that you are. If you have to say how excep­tion­al you are, maybe you aren’t.
America is any­thing but excep­tion­al, not just on the ridicu­lous claim of moral supe­ri­or­i­ty, but on how it treats its own cit­i­zens, (mass incar­cer­a­tion Prison Industrial com­plex. Voter sup­pres­sion. State-sanc­tioned killings. Persecuting immi­grants, while Americans walk into any coun­try and are treat­ed with love and respect). 
There is no excep­tion­al­ism in any of that, no moral supe­ri­or­i­ty.
Ask the peo­ple in Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, American Samoa who have been col­o­nized but are still unable to vote in American Presidential elec­tions.
Colonization with­out rep­re­sen­ta­tion.
Moral supe­ri­or­i­ty? 
And don’t for­get that all of the peo­ple liv­ing in these places are black and brown peo­ple.
Wonder why they aren’t allowed to vote?





One thought on “The Myth Of American Exceptionalism

  1. I do agree in “American Exceptionalist,” because we are the only coun­try in the world that treats our cit­i­zens based on their hue and we are a peo­ple with no shame.

    They are so many things I can point out about the United States of America and why they are excep­tion­al! A man can col­lude, con­spires with a for­eign adver­sary, stole an elec­tion and became pres­i­dent of the United States of America; then he kiss­es the ene­my of America and peo­ple in his par­ty go along with him.

    If one is aware of the his­to­ry, they would have known that the U.S.A. does­n’t mean the United States Of America, but “U Suffer Alone!”

    Murderers built the coun­try, and peo­ple whose con­sciences nev­er work because they are frozen from the ice at the Caucus moun­tain in Europe and what we are see­ing is Babylon is falling from with­in, and the stand­ing that America long enjoy is of the past. All good things must come to an end!

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