American Exceptionalism

‘American Exceptionalism’ is the concept that feeds the phenomenon of nationalism in the United States. More specifically, American Exceptionalism says that the United States is unique and inherently different among all other nations in the world, and that this uniqueness and difference places it in a category superior to all other nations in the world.

Though the phase ‘American Exceptionalism’ was used early on in the United States’ history, it was popularized in the 1980s as part of the Reagan Administration’s and national media’s efforts to reshape the perception of what it meant to be American.

Clouding the History of the United States of America

Most mainstream historians work from the premise of American Exceptionalism. This is a disservice to the real history of the United States. The lens of American Exceptionalism does not permit us to take a full or accurate accounting of history. In-so-doing, Exceptionalism fails to allow us to put the historical pieces together to synthesize and accurately perceive how society has come to be what it is – the who, what, where, when, why, and how.

When the public does not share a common knowledge and understanding of the past, it cannot adequately solve the problems of modernity, or the future. Worse, the public cannot and will not agree that problems, historical, modern, or future even exist to the point that anything should be done.

The Paralyzing Effect of American Exceptionalism

American Exceptionalism tells the public that the United States is the best country in the history of the world; that there is not and cannot be any better. Whatever flaws within society that may exist are better than they would be anywhere else. We don’t need to change. It argues that changes are detrimental to America’s greatness. If we’re declining at all, it means that we need to go back to something in our past instead of move forward into the future.

The attitude of American Exceptionalism promotes the deterioration and destruction of reality. It is the death of the imagination. It is detrimental to the improvement and evolution of American society.

If we cannot identify the problems, or have such extreme differences in perception of what the problems are, and what the causes are, then we will not arrive at solutions that adequately addresses them. In fact, we are likely to only arrive at actions, or inactions, that exacerbate existing problems while creating new ones. Those extreme differences that drive detrimental actions or inactions will threaten the stability and survival of everything.

The Embedded Racism of American Exceptionalism

The United States was founded and expanded by way Native American genocide and encampment and African slavery and oppression. Additionally, throughout United States history, immigration laws specifically targeted nations that weren’t considered white with quotas, limiting the number of immigrants that could legally settle in the country. The American Nativism movement was inspired by opposition to non-white immigration. The message was very clear. The United States was and was to remain a country for white protestant Anglo-Saxons.

Recently, when questioned by foreign journalists about why mass shootings were a uniquely American phenomenon; positing that this is what is truly exceptional about America, a Senator from Texas became defensive and proclaimed that millions of people are still flocking to the United States because the United States is the best country in the world. This is a cheap answer that will play well with the base, and those that have been propagandized into internalizing the concept of national superiority.

It is true that many people looking to escape their home countries for whatever their reasons still come to the United States searching desperately for a better life. Many refugees seeking asylum express a desire to return to their home countries if and when things stabilize. The conditions that cause many refugees to flee their home countries are caused by if not exacerbated by multinational corporate exploitation and United States foreign policy.

Immigration from Black and Brown countries remains an issue in American politics today, for the same reasons it has for the last two centuries. While that Texas Senator, with Cuban ancestry, who uses a white sounding name, takes pride that immigrants are still coming to the United States, he himself works personally to deny them entry. He also works personally to dehumanize and criminalize them when they do enter.

There are many pitfalls and injustices of American society that are especially concentrated among racial and ethnic minorities, by design.

The systems and institutions of the United States have anti-poor, anti-immigrant, and racist values and principles embedded within them that are fundamentally prejudice and cruel toward certain people. These systems and institutions make it difficult for minorities and poor white folks to get ahead. They make it especially hard for minorities to get ahead.

Instead of examining how those systems and institutions can be improved, or dismantled and something better built in their place, bad faith actors and fully indoctrinated and propagandized soldiers of nationalism dismiss valid and legitimate criticisms and concerns, citing the concept of American Exceptionalism.

American Values are Prioritized by the Wealthy and Powerful

If there is one thing that folks in the United States will place above nationalism, it’s’ wealth. Why might that be?? Why would wealth top nationalism? The general public has been propagandized to prioritize certain values that best benefit the wealth and power of those that have wealth and power.

Elon Musk, a South African billionaire with an ego the size of Mars, exploiting the United States for its culture of serving wealth, power and celebrity above all else, recently asked the question on social media, who do you trust more, billionaires or politicians? An overwhelming majority, should we assume they were real people and not bots, chose billionaires. Even if bots did drive the poll (which would be in conflict with Musk’s assertion that Twitter is run by and for leftists), the answer to that question, given the makeup of American politics and economics and how they relate to one another, should be… neither. Billionaires own politicians. Politicians are largely subservient to their donors in the United States. Despite being a well known fact, it misses the collective cognition of cause and effect. That’s how sophisticated and effective the United States’ propaganda machine, controlled by the ruling class is.

More people than anyone cares to admit hate their political opposition because they believe some conspiracy about them, believe themselves genetically superior racially, in terms of sex and gender, sexual orientation, ability, and so on, believe their religion is superior and will act in cruel and barbaric ways to defend and promote it against manufactured threats, and will do anything a billionaire asks of them, if it means fame, fortune, or even just attention from the billionaire they’ve idolized, because they’ve attached a false set of values and beliefs to them.

Recently, someone close to the Jeffrey Epstein story admitted that while he was interviewing victims and folks from Epstein’s circle he was shocked to his core by how wealthy and powerful people can behave with impunity by wielding their wealth, power, and networks. He admitted to disbelief in what he thought were alarmists and conspiracy theorists warning of the power of the wealthy. He also said that he could say with confidence after his research into the Epstein scandal, that he was was wrong. Epstein’s sex trafficking ring was supplying trafficked girls to powerful people. His operation was well known among the ruling class. Politicians, academics, media, businesspeople, and more. People that are well known to the public are implicated. Yet the media continues to celebrate them and hold them in high regard. And they know. They know who is implicated. They knew who Epstein was and what he was doing. Similar to Harvey Weinstein, but much bigger.

“Its a big club, and you ain’t in it”
– George Carlin

The Ruling Class

Persistent conflicts and other problems amongst those that do not possess wealth and power serve those who do have wealth and power and want to keep and grow it at the expense of others. The folks looking for ways to divide and exploit the general public can be referred to as ‘the ruling class’.

Who is the ruling class in the United States? The ruling class are the wealthy and powerful people that control things like government, economics, information, law enforcement, the Justice system, and foreign policy. They are the owners of capital. Among the exclusive group at the top are owners of multinational corporations, CEOs, Wall Street Brokers, Hedge Fund Managers, Private Equity Firms, Bankers, Media Moguls, and Industry Lobbying Firms. They are modern tycoons and robber barons. They fund political campaigns, control politicians by various ways and means, and pull the strings of government to their benefit.

The ruling class is not subjected to elections. They hold the power no matter which politicians come and go; no matter which political party is in power at whatever level of government. They do their best to remain in the shadows and conceal or downplay their roles in every day society, thus maintaining the veneer of public agency in self-government in the United States, and keeping the heat off of them. This is true for the most part, however, on occasion, the public is treated to especially egotistical members of the ruling class, whose thirst for fame and adulation overwhelms them.

Five Decades of Consolidation

Beginning in the 1970s, immediately following the successes of the civil rights movement, business leaders began to organize to take power in government in way they had not been able to since the 1920s, before the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and Great Depression.

The New Deal programs and shift in government philosophy that occurred as a necessity to lift the country out of the Depression in the 1930s and 40s changed the game for the folks at the top of the income bracket. While they still possessed power over government to an extent, the government was more willing to be adversarial to the wealthy regarding taxes, economic fairness, and enforcement of regulations. The government exercised power to govern over the wealthy.

From the very moment the New Deal was passed, the wealthy and their soldiers in power were opposed, however the Great Depression and World War II hampered their resistance.

The reactionary fervor to the successes of the civil rights movement, women’s rights activism, and anti-war activism, also affected by multiple political assassinations, exposed lies and corruption by President Nixon, and failures of President Carter presented opportunities for the wealthy and powerful to regain what they had lost, and dramatically shift the psyche of the nation with regard to philosophy of government and economics.

The corporate and ultra-conservative resurgence in organization culminated with the election of Ronald Reagan, former Hollywood Actor and stooge of Senator Joseph McCarthy (infamous for McCarthyism), as President of the United States. Ronald Reagan nullified as much of the New Deal philosophy of government as he was politically able. In the face of economic and foreign policy crisis, Reagan was politically able to do quite a lot. Serving as the vessel through which the wealthy and powerful could implement their agenda, the ruling class freed themselves of regulations that promoted economic fairness, policed monopolies, and prevented or mitigated outsourcing for cheaper materials and labor.

The ruling class rid themselves of significant tax rates on the wealthiest incomes and corporations that largely went to the benefit of infrastructure and public programs, slashing rates to historic all time lows.

Reagan attacked labor power, weakening labor organization and effectiveness so significantly that union participation would experience heavy decline over the coming decades. This would have a huge impact on wages and other benefits, as well as working conditions and how much time workers needed to work to earn money relative to the cost of goods and services they could obtain (purchasing power). The wealth gap between highest and lowest incomes would begin to explode and the middle class would begin to shrink, as the rich became richer and more people became poor and working poor.

Over time, especially as the Democratic Party began adopting philosophical Reaganism for their own, the wealthy consolidated power by attacking democratic republicanism. The more wealthy the few were, the more they invested in rigging politics in their favor, to buy politicians and prevent anyone seeking major reforms to social and economic philosophy from obtaining significant power to implement them.

Gerrymandering, the process by which political parties design voting districts to best favor the accumulation of power for one political party at the expense of the other, became an increasingly normalized strategy. Consolidation was compounded by the rolling back of regulations on campaign finance and political spending. The citizens united case in the United States Supreme Court reasoned that corporations were human beings when it came to political speech in the form of political contributions, because to them, money equals speech, and speech is protected by the first amendment. If you read that and thought it didn’t make sense, you’re not alone.

Installing Justices to the federal bench and Supreme Court that were more favorable to the consolidation of power of the ruling class became a strategy to overcome and overturn regulations and laws that were unfavorable to them. If anyone sees Republicans and not Democrats in that statement, one should examine how many Justices appointed by Republicans were fast tracked and approved by Democrats. One should also consider how unlikely it is to be considered for appointment to such positions without either being a member of the ruling class or demonstrating you’re not a threat to them (I.E. not too ideologically committed to Justice activism through the Judicial system). Power is earned by playing the game, not by opposing it.

The fairness doctrine was attacked, undermined, and jettisoned as a guiding principle in broadcast and journalism. Companies were then able to service niche markets and gear their content toward specific demographics. Investigative journalism was attacked and undermined by threats of withdrawing access to crucial information needed to develop and publish stories. The financial structure of journalism changed and became more corporate sponsorship. Twenty Four Hour cable television news media was invented. All media, unable to compete with corporate media, became more and more consolidated under mergers and acquisitions. All media has now been consolidated by just a handful of media conglomerates, owned by billionaires, with executive boards of millionaires. Just a few billionaires own nearly every television news broadcast and piece of entertainment a person consumes.

In political situations of note and in political positions of significant executive power, both political parties filter and select candidates that for the most part will not rock the boat with regard to the Party’s overall platform or at the very least, message. Politicians that present as challenges (threats) to the status quo are threatened with less power and influence. In some cases, threats to the status quo will be politically undermined. Some will get primaries.

The objective of the ruling class is to eliminate as many threats to establishment wealth and power as possible.

They’ve largely succeeded.

Oligarchy

The ruling class is not yet finished consolidating wealth and power for their own at everyone else’s expense, however they have come a very long way in their efforts to do so over the last 50 years.

The State Department of the United States refers to those that have wealth and power in Russia as Oligarchs. The definition of Oligarch is a business leader with a great deal of political influence, or a ruler. The United States of America has more Oligarchs than any other country in the world.

Capitalism and Manipulation

The Oligarchs of the American ruling class have shaped modern American society with great skill, combining opportunity with mass manipulation by way of the media machines they own and operate, as well as a whole host of other distractions and escapisms. A majority of the public is none the wiser. Further still, they have many folks cheering on their own chains, without noticing the chains even exist.

The United States is home to one of the most sophisticated mass propaganda machines the world has ever known.

It is no coincidence that the United States, where so called ‘free market’ capitalism is religion, has some of the most propagandized people in the entire world. Capitalism and propaganda are like peanut butter and jelly. Sales by its very nature is manipulative and coercive. Public Relations is propaganda. Marketing is a psyop. Ruling Class + Capitalism + Propaganda + American Exceptionalism = Belief in individual effort and genetics being the key components of success… The American Dream.

The American Dream used to be more accessible to more people. When it was, for some people, other grievances about the system could be excused or overlooked. For many, as a result of intentional psychological manipulation, this phenomenon has become more political than economic. For example, for fanatically loyal voters of either the Republican or the Democratic Party, whatever ails society can be overlooked when their favored political party is power. Problems with society, however, register when the opposing party is in power. Much of it hinges on privilege, however that is not the only variable at play.

But it’s all nothing more than a shell game.

Who owns it? Not Bill Clinton. Not George Bush. Not Barack Obama. Not Donald Trump. Not Nancy Pelosi. Not Kevin McCarthy. Not Mitch McConnell. Not Chuck Schumer.

The ruling class owns it. And everyone is getting played.

Ruling Class Report Card

The following are true:

• More children are killed by guns in the United States than soldiers at war
• It’s easier and cheaper to obtain guns in the United States than it is to see a counselor
• It’s easier and cheaper to obtain guns in the United States than it is to get an education
• Guns are the #1 cause of death of children in the United States
• The United States is #1 in the world for school shootings
• The United States spends more on its military than anywhere else in the world, multiples over
• The United States Police force is the 3rd most funded military in the world
• The United States has the worst wealth gap in the industrialized world
• The racial wealth gap is worse in 2022 than it was in 1968
• The United States has the worst rate of childhood poverty in the industrialized world
• More than 42 million people in the United States live in poverty
• Native Americans and Black Americans, who account for smaller percentages of the whole U.S. population, have the highest rates of concentrated poverty in the United States, up to 14% higher than average
• In the last 13 years, working people have experienced significant increases in cost of goods and services
• In the last 13 years, the average cost of education and owning a home increased significantly
• In the last 13 years, employment stability has decreased significantly
• In the last 13 years, the United States’ minimum wage has remained the same
• In the last 13 years, corporate profits in the United States have reached record highs
• In the last 13 years, the wealth of the wealthiest incomes in the United States have ballooned hundreds of times over
• Consumer debt in the United States is higher than it was just before the stock market crash of 1929
• 31.6 million people in the United States have absolutely no health insurance, and even more are inadequately insured
• Medical debt in the United States is among the worst in the world (Many countries, including some that are considered “developing”, have universal healthcare where citizens owe zero in medical debt)
• The United States is #1 in the world for total student debt
• Economic mobility in the United States is among the worst in the world
• The United States is #1 in the world for Incarceration, multiples over
• Physical infrastructure in the United States is ranked roughly 13th in the world; in significant and critical need of repair or replacement and modernization
• Half a million people in the United States are homeless
• 2 million people in the United States don’t have access to clean drinking water
• Rates of anxiety and depression in the United States are up
• The United States infant mortality rate is 71% higher than the comparable country average
• Average life expectancy in the United States is down
• Average household wealth in the United States is down
• Average generational wealth in the United States is down for the first time in history
• 1 in 4 retirees in the United States have no retirement savings whatsoever
• Deaths of despair in the United States are up
• In standard measures of democracy, the United States has slipped down to 36th in the world, with no signs of improvement in sight

The list above, as much as it may seem so, is not even a comprehensive list. There are many more bullet points that could be added. Taken together, the list above, in addition to what isn’t listed, accounts for what is genuinely American. These are all choices. This is by design.

The ruling class and the politicians they own have navigated the masses into a collapsing society. As society collapses, the public will either band together to fix it, fight in revolution for a new society, or a deluded and fanatical minority will militarize under a strongman-type leader to punish perceived enemies and restore a fantasized version of former glory that those enemies, both internal and external, took away.

It’s healthier to accept and admit that the United States is not the best at everything. It is healthier to accept and admit that the mythical American past that some people believe in only exists in their minds.

The United States of America is leading the world in measures of an unhealthy and collapsing society.

That’s American Exceptionalism.

If we want to do something about it, we first have to dispense with the concept of American Exceptionalism and begin grappling with some hard truths. This is unlikely.

American Exceptionalism as a Cover for Fascism

Some people are very intentional with their rhetorical reach into the past, even though they might not come out and say exactly what they mean. Taken as a whole, their coded rhetoric becomes very clear.

The ruling class, in acts of self-preservation, rather than succumb to challenges to their wealth and power willingly, will use the media to stoke wedge issues to divide and distract the general public with fear and hate. Exploiting and amplifying tribalism and manufactured scarcity will drive the masses to the darkest corners of evolutionary human psychology.

As far as the ruling class is concerned, stoking social, cultural, and political tensions and divisions distracts the public from where the real power is being concentrated and wielded.

Ironically, an Australian Billionaire who owns a global media empire is fueling one of the most effective nationalistic American propaganda machines in history. Using this platform, reaching more people than any other source of television media, he and his operatives are able to stoke fears about how immigrants seeking asylum are taking jobs from hard working Americans and bringing crime syndicates with them to otherwise peaceful (white) neighborhoods. This platform of brain drain buffoonery gets people believing in wild and imaginative conspiracy theories about how people that identify as politicians and voters from the other major political party are in cahoots with a global Jewish movement to raise the living standards of poor minorities so that those minorities can become majorities and subjugate real patriotic Americans (white people). Some operatives occasionally prescribe to their audience courses of action that are confrontational, doomed to end in some level of violence; with potential to be fatal.

In a United States House of Representatives hearing on gun control, one House Representative from Texas mentioned the 1960s as a turning point in American society, in derogatory fashion, condemning the changes to society at the time. What major events changed society in the 1960s? This is the kind of coded language that has been used for decades in the United States.

By using nationalism and hiding behind the concept of American Exceptionalism, media operatives for the ruling class are ensuring that people fight each other, ‘out-groups’ they believe responsible for their pain and suffering, rather than organize in solidarity to challenge the wealth and power that own and control the levers of economics and government in the United States.

Conclusion

The ruling class keeps American society from becoming a functional multiracial and multiethnic democracy where everyone can live lives of social, cultural, environmental, and economic dignity and prosperity by using the concept of American Exceptionalism, that the United States is already better than everywhere else, and we need not change anything or even entertain the idea of change.

To build a wall to change, the ruling class deploys its sophisticated propaganda machine to play to white fears of losing historical culture, status, and privilege.

The ruling class propagandizes people into assigning alternative meanings to terms including but not limited to things like multiracial and multiethnic, to drive tribal opposition to social and economic changes that would benefit anyone they don’t feel is worthy. They also amplify fears of unfairness – that others are being given something at their expense. They’re not wrong about being exploited, however they are wrong about who is being exploited and who is benefitting from that exploitation.

The ruling class exploits tribal fears to consolidate wealth and power for themselves, while blaming some ‘other’ group for the problems in society.

The ruling class message is “punch down, and pay no attention to the billionaires behind the curtain.”

The better option is to reject that message, find commonality with one another, humanize one another, organize in solidarity, peel back the curtain, shine a light on the billionaires behind the curtain, expose ruling class operatives, and punch up toward a revolutionary society of people power, where ideals that are truly exceptional are fully realized.