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American Exceptionalism

Coronavirus Shakes The Conceit Of ‘American Exceptionalism’

April 25, 2020 Calvin Woodward, AP News. , , ,
Washington, DC - What if the real “invisible enemy” is the enemy from within — America’s very institutions? When the coronavirus pandemic came from distant lands to the United States, it was met with cascading failures and incompetencies by a system that exists to prepare, protect, prevent and cut citizens a check in a national crisis. The molecular menace posed by the new coronavirus has shaken the conceit of “American exceptionalism” like nothing big enough to see with your own eyes. A nation with unmatched power, brazen ambition and aspirations through the arc of history to be humanity’s “shining city upon a hill” cannot come up with enough simple cotton swabs despite the wartime manufacturing and supply powers assumed by President Donald Trump.

Yellow Skin, White Masks

April 17, 2020 Danny Haiphong, Black Agenda Report. , , , ,
In an op-ed published April 1st, former Democratic Party presidential candidate Andrew Yang commented on the increase in racist assaults against Asian-Americans occurring across the country in response to the COVID-19 crisis. Yang argued that Asian-Americans can best respond to racism by appealing to white America and becoming an even stronger fixture within the social order. According to Yang, Asian Americans “…need to embrace and show our American-ness in ways we never have before. We need to step up, help our neighbors, donate gear, vote, wear red white and blue, volunteer, fund aid organizations, and do everything in our power to accelerate the end of this crisis. We should show without a shadow of a doubt that we are Americans who will do our part for our country in this time of need.”

America First, COVID-19 Pandemic And Global Humanity

April 12, 2020 By Mahboob A. Khawaja, PhD, Information Clearinghouse. , , ,
The 21st century is an age of globalization. Crisis in one part of the world affects all the people of the Earth. We, the humanity, live in co-existence with the Nature of Things within the Universe. If we tend to be blind to basic human requisites of human rights, human safety and care, social justice and peace, we tend to challenge and deny the cosmic harmony and justice in which we exist as mankind. The COVID-19 pandemic crisis is a strand that can be found in the interwoven people’s thought and politics of the 21st-century knowledge-based informed governance that echoes concerns and priorities that humanitarian imperatives are scarified for political expediency. The common sentiment of human solidarity is increasing over the inept nationalistic politics of the few like President Trump- “America First.”

COVID-19: The Capitalist Emperor Has No Clothes

April 6, 2020 Ajamu Baraka, Black Agenda Report. , , ,
As the capitalist emperor strolls down the avenue of U.S. public opinion butt-naked but for the first time since the 1930s, more and more people are starting to realize that they were not crazy. The brutal failures of the capitalist system that they saw were not a figment of their imagination or a diversion from their own personal failures. Instead, they were the awful reality of degradation, dehumanization and social insecurity embedded in the system. Many could see that reality but wouldn’t allow themselves to believe their own eyes and experiences. They couldn’t call it out like the kid in the fable – until now.  The claim that the U.S. was an exceptional nation and that the capitalist order represented the highest expression of human development has been shattered by the second global collapse of the capitalist order within twelve years.

Scheer Intelligence: Even The ICC Can’t Rein In American Exceptionalism

April 3, 2020 Robert Scheer, KCRW.com. , , ,
In early March, senior judges in the international criminal court ruled that an investigation into the actions the U.S., Afghan and Taliban military committed in 2003 could take place, overturning a previous ruling. Perhaps more remarkable than the fact the ICC, which had earlier assumed such an investigation wouldn’t be possible because none of those implicated would be likely to cooperate, was the U.S. response to the decision.  “This is a truly breathtaking action by an unaccountable political institution masquerading as a legal body,” said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.  Although the Trump official’s blatant disparaging of a global justice organization is deeply troubling, American undermining of the ICC predates both Donald Trump’s rise to power and the Afghanistan War.

Coronavirus, Militarism And The End Of An Illusion

April 3, 2020 the Black Alliance for Peace, Black Agenda Report. , , ,
Coronavirus and second economic collapse in just ten years should finally put to rest the fairy-tale of U.S. Exceptionalism. Trump’s “Make America Great” and Obama’s “U.S. Exceptionalism” are slogans that reflect an ongoing commitment to the normalized assumption of white racial and civilizational superiority. The idea that the territory that became the United States, and its settler population, were specially anointed by a god who gave them providence over the land and the Indigenous people is so ingrained in the national imagination that its extension to rationalize and justify U.S. imperialist policies was seamless. The U.S. over the years shamelessly boasted of its “greatness” and being number one in all things, including having the best healthcare system in the world.

How Fake ‘American Exceptionalism’ Hides Shame, Creates Stupidity & Dangerous Imperialism

December 25, 2019 By S. Brian Willson, Global Research , ,
The culture and nation-state of the United States of America are founded on the egregious and forceful dispossession of others. You might even call it an earlier version of fascism – institutional dehumanization for private profit. A myth, or grand lie, was created that we are an exceptional people, effectively pre-empting openly experiencing the important feeling of social shame and, in turn, blocking any accountability or genuine inquiry into our genocidal origins built on stolen land and labor, that murdered millions with impunity. Thus, we live by the fantasy of our superiority, which functionally makes us stupid, as if in a stupor.
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