American Exceptionalism

It's a side effect of American Exceptionalism.

Typical run of the mill USAer mindset. Ah yes, we are "better" than them, so our problems don't really exist.

Speaking as an American who has lived in other countries, the idea of "American Exceptionalism" is rampant in the USA and you will not undo it with any appeal or facts. It's built into the identity of so many people here. Seeing that as a group Americans are a majority on most English speaking websites, criticism, however correct, is always met with egoistic backlash. I hope you haven't taken it personally, nor believe that it's ALL of us. Nationalism is a disease, but o

this is what people are thinking about when they refer to 'American exceptionalism'.You can't seriously believe this?

I'd say you two are pretty much like most Americans. ie - You readily identify the problems endemic to all the other Americans.I do it too. It's the way we're socialized here in the US via everything from the media and music to political speeches.What would be really interesting to know is if either of you are non-American? I have a sense that this proclivity might not be simply an American thing. I've wondered more and more if it's just human?

I think what's happening here is a difference in how we view our governments.In the West, and especially in America, we don't highly internalize "being American" (insert country). A lot of us just think of it as a circumstances. And right now there's a lot of distaste for what the government does. You'll probably find that most of the people are upset at their own country about exactly what you're upset about what America does (I know I am, and it looks like

I've seen plenty of this mindset in America already and honestly they're not wrong.

A very American trait is to assume something is very American and doesn't apply elsewhere. Usually 'elsewhere' is just defined as a shallow understanding of Europe.

Technically, the writer did use the term "majority". That's not really the point though.There's this obnoxious US attitude that is really wide spread in the population that the US is the best, and that Americans are noble, even though they mess up occasionally.It's to the point where even when criticizing their own country, Americans will write that the criticism is in the spirit of improving the greatest nation on Earth, etc.It's just a really noticeable a

Not when you honestly believe in American Exceptionalism