Are you an American exceptionalist?

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

very curious

[Antonio the Sixth]

Well, I do believe America is exceptional in many respects (some of them very good, other quite bad).

[Classic Conservative]

Yes

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Nope. In terms of statistics, we're a failure in everything except defense and being fiscally irresponsible.

[politicallefty]

I believe we have some greatly exceptional qualities, but others that are not so great. I do believe in California Exceptionalism as a state with only few reservations.

[dead0man]

Well, I do believe America is exceptional in many respects (some of them very good, other quite bad).

this is the correct answer

Nope. In terms of statistics, we're a failure in everything except defense and being fiscally irresponsible.

this is the stupid answer

[Zioneer]

What Tony said, with the added caveat that we could be exceptional in many, many good ways if we tried.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

People should note the meanings of the term "exceptional", I think.

[NeverAgain]

I think that we were founded on great ideas and have attempted while definitely not perfectly to uphold the values that our founders and people hold dear. I am an exceptionalist in the fact that we are the best country in the world, and I would never choose to live anywhere else (unless Trump is elected then screw it, I'm moving to Canada). But that doesn't mean we can do no wrong, especially on foreign policy. I think we need to say we're great at this, but not this and fix it. Not "'MURICA NUMBAR ONEEE!!!!!!111".

[The Last Northerner]

No, but it applies in more than one way:

1. People who think the US is, and more importantly will always be, a hyperpower that can intervene in anyone else's affair to spread its beliefs.

2. People who think the United States is the only nation in the world who has committed tragedies in the past so therefore should be held to an absurd moral standard today that no one else is held to.


The former is a key marker of some Liberal Interationalists and their cousin Neoconservatives; the latter belief is commonly held among certain progressive circles and could be applied to Israel as well (and I say this as supporter of Palestine statehood).

[DavidB.]

Yes, even though I'm not an American -- why would it be any more ridiculous for a non-American than for an American to be an American exceptionalist, Crab?

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Sure, but if I were British I'd be a British exceptionalist. The concept is nothing more than red meat to get Reaganfan all hot and bothered before an election.

[Mr. Smith]

Absolutely not, exceptionalism is merely arrogance, nothing more or less.

[#TheShadowyAbyss]

Lol no.

[tallguy23]

We're great in many ways and not so great in other ways.

I don;t like the word exceptionalism because it implies you have nothing to learn from others.

[Potus]

Absolutely.

[Green Line]

Yes, without exception.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Let's quote Master Vonnegut:

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[Leinad]

The idea of America was pretty great, but the execution has been generally crap.

It's hard to say we're worse than other countries, per se, but it's also hard to say we're all that better.

And obviously, American people are inherently no worse or better than others. And also obviously, just because the US government does something doesn't mean it's alright--as anyone who's even slightly followed the US government knows.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

All lands are exceptional are they not. Nowhere is alike.

[Zioneer]

Also, my religion literally says that America is a "land of promise, choice above all other lands", so by definition to be a good Mormon I'd have to be an American exceptionalist in some way.

[DINGO Joe]

All lands are exceptional are they not. Nowhere is alike.

Clearly, you have never been to the suburbs.

[SATW]

Yes.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

All lands are exceptional are they not. Nowhere is alike.

Clearly, you have never been to the suburbs.

If true, I doubt he regrets it.

[Leinad]

All lands are exceptional are they not. Nowhere is alike.

But most lands are comprised of the same stuff most others are.

The room I'm sitting in is probably unlike any other room, but every detail is found in thousands of rooms just like it: laptop, pieces of paper with random scribbles, dusty keyboard, candy wrappers I am yet to throw away because of some reason I forgot, a tape measure that I rarely ever use, a desk, a red tablecloth on that desk, a loose battery that should probably not be loose, pencil shavings (I think those are pencil shavings?), and so on and so forth.

I think at least some of you follow my analogy. Or maybe not. Analogies have never been my strong suit--I often get too committed to the analogy itself, as opposed to the underlying point I am attempting to convey.