What is American Exceptionalism, anyway? It is the notion that Americans are somehow special because a deity saw fit to entrust us with his work on Earth; accordingly we are exempt from the usual operations of history and the rise and fall of nations.Truthout | Op-Ed
American Exceptionalism: Alibi of a Nation
Mike Lofgren
I don't know that American's have any special claim to "exceptionalism." In my experience, it infects most nationalities. The British empire was an instance of British exceptionalism to which more than a few Brits still cling, and certainly, Hitler's appeal was to Teutonic exceptionalism. Same with Imperial Japan leading up to WWII. What is exceptional about the the US is that American exceptionalism is not based on kinship, or even place of birth, but historical circumstance.
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