American Exceptionalism: A terrifying world view
After listening to Trump's terrifying bellicose and contradictory speech to the UN which will have more support across the US than many would care to admit. Contradictory in the sense of choosing our enemies and our allies alike.
This horror is supported by a strictly bipartisan warmongering effort to give the US military even more power to carry our aggressive US foreign policy. $80 billion has been added taking this bloated absurdity up to $700 billion a year. Only eight senators voted against this vast increase, they were:
Corker (R-TN)
Gillibrand (D-NY)
Leahy (D-VT)
Lee (R-UT)
Merkley (D-OR)
Paul (R-KY)
Sanders (I-VT)
Wyden (D-OR)
My Vermont Senators bolded.
There is also the bipartisan effort to say that we do not have the money for good things such as proper health care, education and infrastructure improvements. Damn lies. We will attempt to nation build [with all the associated chaotic fallout included free of charge] once we have beaten into submission and occupied a foreign country, but will joyously allow our own to crumble.
Some Democrats and Republicans will try and convince me that their foreign policies are different, absolute bullshit, only their targets vary. They both get upset if another nation tries to do the same damn thing. We are good and that allows us to determine unilaterally who is evil, anyone that dares to object joins the evil group automatically.
We do this with a deeply ingrained belief in our own exceptionalism only objecting when it is in our politically biased interest to do so. War crimes don't exist if the US commits them. We hate to call ourselves an empire when our corporations and military pillage the world, wake up and smell the bullshit. We are an empire because we behave exactly as one.
Politics of division at home, financial and military war abroad. We threaten Russia with our tool Nato and object loudly when there is resistance yet our mega corporations still do "deals". We get pissed off when some nation labels us "the great satan" yet we continue to do our best to earn the title every year that goes by:
War crimes
Black ops
Regime change
War [including the war on drugs, war on terrorism]
Occupation
Extraordinary rendition
Imprisonment without trial
Assasination and murder by drone of anyone and anywhere we deem fit.
Bludgeoning and menacing our allies to join us in our next adventure.
Mocking our allies if they do not contribute enough to our tool Nato.
Global arms trade
Lying to the UN.
Burying our heads in the sand with respect to climate change and the devastation that has already begun.
These are the actions of a "good" nation? Well, fuck me.
Republicans and Democrats better not talk to me how they are different to Trump's speech to the UN, I'll laugh at them. Oh, there is some variance in the language used, meaningless rhetoric with varying and sometimes different targets. If you keep voting for war and if you keep funding it, then you own it.
We refuse to help our own people improve their lives, yet, aim to improve other peoples lives through menaces of annihilation, sanctions, naked aggression, black ops, war and occupation. There is something deeply perverse in the American psyche that they keep right on voting the same people into power. The world does not belong to us.
The reality is we want other people to obey us, make our cheap shit and bugger the reality of their lives. There is a reason that people "hate" us, we just refuse to listen. Our lives matter [selective though that is], theirs don't.
American Exceptionalism will go down as one of the greatest crimes against humanity. We cannot even come to terms with our own act of genocide when "building" our own nation. Apparently we cannot even come to terms with our crime against humanity that was slavery, we seem to be still fighting a civil war over that one.
* The figure only covers the Military budget not the total cost
Comments
I'm only covering foreign policy
I've deliberate avoided
Militarized Police
Prison Industial complex
etc
@LaFeminista As a fellow expat...
As a fellow expat...
I share your pain! As I read this, the background music playing in my head was, "I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free!" I can't understand how so many people really believe that bullshit.
“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”
George W. Bush
We get a different world view for sure.
Once again Democratic Party websites are refusing
to link this drain on our nation's wealth to the lack of ability to act at home.
We are an fascist oligarchic state
The dystopia of which Orwell wrote in 1984 has arrived and far more people are aware of it than the corporate media will ever admit. In fact, our media is part of an official psyops program to catapult the propaganda against American citizens so we will sit still and take our less [fill in the blank - it's a long list] and be happy with it. Those who protest are brutalized and marginalized. Dissent has effectively been placed in the same ghetto that the former Soviet Union used back in the day. To use a legal term our country should be committed to an asylum because our society and its government is a danger to itself and others.
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
There's often two parts
There's often two parts to this type of legal proceeding involving a mentally disordered person.
The judge issues two orders. One order involuntarily commits the person to some sort of care facility, usually in a locked unit so they can't get out and get into trouble. The other order declares the person incompetent to handle their affairs (signing contracts, managing their assets, etc.), and appoints someone to do it for them.
Seems like the present-day USA might qualify on both counts.
"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi
"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone
@LaFeminista
Great essay (as usual, lol)! And essential topic!
That pathological 'exceptionalism' fascist nonsense was propaganda used against the American people just as much as against the rest of the world. Perhaps almost more in one sense, as it (among many other destructive examples) was used to warp their perceptions and control their minds, much as who they've been permitted to vote for has been controlled...
When self-interests running government neglect its own country's needs and drains its own people to build up the world's largest military to use as an invasion force against initially smaller and poorer countries viewed as most vulnerable in order to steal their resources and to micro-manage everything in everyone else's countries for the maximized profits of certain billionaires and other self-interests involved in corporations, while claiming to be the 'world's leader', they're not using the most appropriate term, especially since nobody else wants their country and government to be led around by the nose by said outside hostile self-interests.
We've seen what that's done to America and Americans.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
erroneous symbol
We funded them in pounds sterling??!!?? No wonder they've been so soggy and hard to light!
/s
You did mean we added $ 80 billion to the military budget, did you not?
And again, let's not forget whose $ we're ta;lking about:
Ours.
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
@thanatokephaloides Oops will correct
Oops will correct
Just a drop in that enormous bucket
is how much it would cost to make every public college and university in the United States tuition free. Wanna guess?
This is just one example of how horribly skewed our official priorities are in this country. Or to put it in a different way, just how corrupt our government is.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
The link to common dreams expands upon that.
between $8 to $10 trillion dollars to be sent by the military over the next ten years.
It's just disgusting and evil
This healthcare bill they're trying to sneak through is also disgusting and evil. We so need a mass awareness right now so that everybody in the World can be on the same page about what's reality and what is evil propaganda.
Beware the bullshit factories.
frames the issue properly
People talk about American Exceptionalism.
And it ought to be embarrassing.
It has the hubris of a small-town 3A football team.
I wish USians could travel a bit more to see how young we are as a country.
Is it time for another discussion on best places to go? Ex pat sharing of knowledge?
Northern Europe if you dont mind dark winters
I cant stand them
It depends on what you want.
The choices are many and varied. I like Croatia, Turkey and Lebanon, albeit for different reasons. Dubai and Doha are great if you can get an employer to pay for your housing.
I'm an ex-expat, and have lived in several interesting countries.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
I second Croatia
Though I've only visited there, never lived. It's on our list, however. I now have citizenship in an EU country should I wish to use it -- just need to get the passport. Doesn't help with Croatia, though I could see living in a nearby EU country just long enough to be able to spend the rest of the year on the Dalmatian coast.
@WaterLily
Anything Dalmation has to be a great spot!
(Sorry, it slipped...)
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
hot
Far and away too hot for me!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Me too,
and I live in southern Arizona!
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
I've lived in eight different countries
and enjoyed them all of them to varying degrees. But my favorite country by far was Italy. I totally fell in love with Italy, head over heels. I could have happily stayed there forever, if only I'd had enough money. Sigh. The other places in order of preference, (where I felt most "at home") were:
2 France
3 Netherlands
4 Switzerland
5 Canada
6 Germany
7 England
8 USA
Of course it all depends on exactly where in any given country one is living, and under what circumstances. For example living in Quebec is not much like living in British Columbia.
native
It is way past time the world isolated us.
Only a few actually need us. They'll be better off far from us. If there was ever a reason to give up their own squabbles, it would be to unite just long enough to cut us off, fence us in, halt all interaction, shut us down. The time-out corner.
Things would get really messy as we threw a tantrum, but every parent knows you have to weather that or be forever enslaved to the brat.
Every parent knows, too, that it's only after this debilitating quarantine that the child becomes more responsible and mature.
Please, world, put us in time out. It would be better for you, and better for Americans, too.
the other choice is to kill us.
some would rather do it that way, I imagine.
This is our only hope, IMO
I have mentioned a cataclysmic event in previous posts. My personal choice would be for the rest of the world to isolate us economically. I am not sure how that would happen, but perhaps the US dollar would no longer be the world's reserve currency? It would be wonderful if someone here with better knowledge of how this might work could write about it.
All I know is that isolating the US would be better for everyone. It might be difficult for us here in the US at first, but long term, it would make us a better nation and definitely a better people. It would force the American people to do some real hard reflection upon our own hubris.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
@gulfgal98
Can't we just isolate the Psychopaths That Be and keep contact with the rest? There must be a way...
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
The United States of America is sick
What you're describing here is serious mental illness, or as the psychiatric community prefers to call it nowadays, "mentally disordered". It's difficult enough to deal with in an individual. What we now have is an entire nation's collective psyche that is so disordered, it appears to have become completely corrupted. It's as if the gears have completely disengaged, and the wheels are spinning wildly but going nowhere.
We have so many problems, from the long-term and deep-rooted to the acute (such as recovery from hurricanes and wildfires).
These are things that would be challenging, but doable, for a healthy society. A healthy society would expect difficult things to happen (that's life, after all), and would plan for it in advance. When a problem arose, they would acknowledge it and have a good enough sense of priorities that they could address the problem and get it resolved.
The U.S. is not a healthy society. Our social contract is failing. The people in charge of running things cannot and will not take any focused, effective action to deal with any of this. Our so-called "leaders", both political and corporate, are not capable of it. They. Cannot. Do. It.
I guess I've hit a moment of deep despair. No wonder so many people don't want to wake up, because waking up to the reality of our situation is a tough thing to face.
This is the only thing that gives me hope:
I have to believe that there remains some part of the American psyche that is reaching for sanity, and that these 8 Senators represent that.
Will it be enough? I surely don't know. But it seems to me that we're quickly reaching the breaking point. No matter what that bunch of sociopathic bozos in Washington D.C. do or don't do, one way or another change is going to happen. It has no choice. The big question is how, and in what direction it's going to occur.
"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi
"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone
our "leaders" don't even want to do it
being capable, is no longer a
requisite for being a CEO, Pol, Banker,
only greed matters in these corrupt times.
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
@Centaurea
Previously posted by Creosote:
https://cassiopaea.org/cass/political_ponerology_lobaczewski.htm
Psychopaths were permitted to take over industry and government and pathologized the general society through propaganda and 'social engineering' including the pathological 'exceptionalism' nonsense.
There is nothing inherently wrong with Americans per se, as I've sometimes seen (ridiculously) suggested; successful psychopaths can and do con experts, at least for a time.
But they can be identified, not only though attitudes and actions, but by brain scans during empathy tests - and kept out of positions where they can wield power over others to harm them.
Nobody lacking the human capacity for empathy should ever be permitted in any such position.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
. . . though gathered from another poster
cheered to be among your readers
Our Lives Matter
yours don't.
in a nutshell.
they say this in my name.
not happy with my country right now.
About ready to declare myself a subject of Atlantia
or maybe AEthelmearc. Either one, fictitious entities though they may be, would be an improvement.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
"My Vermont Senators" votes cancelled by My California Senators
Effective result of the vote: more mass murder, more bombs, more drones, more blowback on peace loving people everywhere. Thanks a lot California ... NOT!
1. Senator Junior, Kamala Harris, D rising star, voted YES for obscene war chest. Sorry about your MfA.
2. Senator Senior, Dianne Feinstein, redefines the word "Senior", a stand-in puppet stick for the corrupt vote-rigged system of bribery. Ossified perpetual YES for WAR.
Both millionaires in a bubble, completely surrounded and protected by the DC bubble-head class. Pathetic.
How did Sanders and Leahy vote on Obama's obscene requests? Edit:
I don't know. Looked it up, See for yourself, Bernie is pretty pretty consistent Nay, Leahy Aye, don't even need California to cancel out the goods. Boxer and Feinstein, Ayes of course. Bloody Obama was "the biggest" asker before Trump, right? Same same. I'd ex-pat if I could afford it, no country will take me this poor. Been in California since birth, will die here.---
I was born in the sewer
I lived in the sewer
I died in the sewer
They thought it was murder
But it was sewercide
---
good luck
So much for Democratic Party HQ California.
It's no wonder they want us to have proportionately fewer senators.
Nancy Pelosi shouted down in California as she pushes deal
for balance, my future hopes are with majority Latino since years now, so this is music for my lint trap "... as she pushes deal to protect ‘Dreamers’":
Stop what? The future from overcoming your greedy asses? NOPE!
Just give them an effing document and stop talking about it forever! Sheesh! Feh. Let's have a political party that doesn't kick around immigrants for a living why not.
good luck
"sewercide" (++)
one can die laughing
the last freedom
not enough
for me.
ex-pat
I resemble that remark!
Increasing numbers of nations won't take Americans at all.
And I can't blame them!
Ironically, the ones most often rejected -- folks like you and me -- are the ones these nations could best afford to admit. We may not have piles of cash, but we still have our souls and our honor. We're not vectors of the Disease these nations want to keep outside of themselves.
But it's not us who have the reputation.....
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Said as perfectly as one can, well done!
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
Lies. lies, everywhere lies
I listened to a bit of T-rump's UN speech.
No mention that N. Korean offers peace and no more missiles or bombs if we agree to no war games. Seems a no brainer. (Oh yeah we don't have a brain, just a corporate profit motive)
Then there's the Iranian lies. He looks in the mirror and says Iran is the most violent nation sponsoring terror not realizing he is describing the US.
Just one more example (of many). He accuses Venezuela of mistreating its people and being a dictatorship. Again a total distortion to allow for the take over of that oil rich nation.
Why don't we awake? Because the MSM doesn't even question the facts and delights in and promotes the perpetual wars.
We are the world's biggest terrorist rogue nation. We are number one, and that is exceptional!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Chump on Venezuela at the UN
His ASSertion that Venezuela is suffering because "Socialism has been applied faithfully" pissed me off to no end.
Never mind that all the Scandinavian nations, Bolivia, and doubtless several others are markedly better off under Socialist governments than they were under Chump's beloved predatory capitalism and military dictatorships.
Cat, am I disgusted with the state of our governance right now.....
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
oil for yuan
Venezuela's sin is abandoning the petrodollar. Same as Hussein and Gaddafi.
bygorry
Ah - government policy by projection
After I found I could see the accusations intended by an alcoholic partner to disrupt me were accurate self-portraits I was able to plan how to successfully change the equation.
We are a despicable government.
I really don't understand why the rest of the nations don't collaborate to take us down.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
fear
Oregon did decent...
Although Washington (State) is killing my dreams of a Cascadian Future.
And the California assholes who keep coming up here.... (I've been here for almost 3 years and I converted to Oregonian! I don't count!) Well, the less said about them the better.
My general rule: If you're Californian and complain about Dispensaries, you're the exact reason California sucks. That includes most of my home town and south.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
Yes, so much for Washington
my two bitches did us a solid, amirite? s/
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
Four Ds vote against.
#RESIST my ass.
Slightly hinder.
" Elizabeth, too? "
- Yes, dear.
Indeed.
Warren
is not all that left. She is so faux.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Yup. America is a lie.
Our 'leaders' say there isn't any money for a National Health Service or an infrastructure revamp. Funnily enough, we could start those things tomorrow if we didn't blow our entire budget on endless war and endless coddling of millionaires and billionaires who insist on paying the rest of us in packing peanuts.
Let's not forget that they also keep us from fighting back by playing us against each other Bacon's Rebellion style.
Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.
Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.
Croatia is sublime.
Slovenia is superb.
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Macedonia is magnificent!
and Montenegro is mesmerizing!
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
We need another Tea Party.
And I'm not talking about a crazy wing of the Republican Party.
I'm so beyond sick of my tax dollars funding this shit. This is not representative government. (She says, stating the obvious).
Everyone is all agog over the announcement
of a US base being created in Israel and pointing fingers at Trump. The agreement to build this base was initiated 2 years ago.... under Obama.
We are in a world of hurt not matter whether the Prez is a Dem or Republican. A base in Israel is just an invitation to more terrorism.
The stupidity of this country is astounding.
"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin
You have to repeat it.
Stupidity created
out of pure greed.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Idiot America.
Loved that book even if Charlie Pierce sold his soul and went full Hillbot.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
@gulfgal98
While spinning straw-men into gold...
Edit in case the reference isn't recognized:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumpelstiltskin
Re-edit to add that of course The Psychopaths and Parasites That Be would never be satisfied with only more gold than they could ever spend. They'd have demanded continual and ever-increasing supplies without end, just as they do now, but will kill directly or indirectly whether they get it or not. This making any bargain with them a bad one.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
The Republican votes
might be honest, principled votes.
The two OR guys want to be reelected, and Merkley wants to be Majority Leader someday. OR has a weird electorate--I grew up there-- roughly equal parts JayCee booster Republicans, don't step on me just vote NO libertarians, hippie (no ex about it) anti Monsanto gardeners and farmers, and émigré yuppies, such as the wine grape growers. Merkley in particular has to have the two middle groups and doesn't dare be seen as prowar despite his Clintonista friends.
Gillibrand the Clinton groupie wants to be president, might be a backup for Harris this time or possible VP hopeful, and would seem to be being allowed to make votes which a. won't much matter and b. appeal to us no count lefties.
Mary Bennett
Oregon republican voter constituency has changed
the influx of out of state life long republicans, loss of small independent business to corporations like Walmart and training of group think by Limbaugh and Lars Larsen has created a toxic group of voters. The anti-ware, progressive republicans from Oregon's history barely exist and if found are forced out of the party.
Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.
I seem to remember that the
JayCee Rs were Packwood's base. I thought they were toxic enough, no money for schools, no regulations on development, and so on.
Mary Bennett
Oh, the irony ...
From the President's UN speech, slightly edited:
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
@Azazello The same edits I made
The same edits I made mentally as he was speaking.
Meteor Blades posted this last night. Interesting comments
Open thread for night owls: Social programs suffer as $80 billion more is added to Pentagon budget https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/9/19/1699897/-Open-thread-for-night-...
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Is there a chance you might summarize the comments?
I can't stomach going there.
Then again, I'm sure I can guess ...
"you are getting nearly 100% spammers as new signups?"
here's my summary ;-):
LOL! Poor BruinKid :-(. Bummer.
LOL.
D-Kos used to be anti-war until Obama was elected
Now Trump is in power they can let their hair down. They insisted in putting a warmonger as their latest presidential candidate.
I find them incoherent and bizarre.
@LaFeminista Strict partisans
Strict partisans usually are incoherent and bizarre.