Fantastic starting point for understanding the Radical American Mind. I sincerely hope the non partisan implications of this thesis can garner support from all sides. I haven’t been a particularly political citizen of late, but this stirs something in me.
Something that struck me in a recent conversation of ours is a delineation of positive versus negative rights. If you ever publish another article on establishing general terminology (which, as someone rather uninitiated, I find very helpful), that might be an interesting topic, especially in light of the hot-button issue of the recent Roe v Wade decision
If I understand you correctly, here you define Americanism as the basis for American statehood only. From our other discussions I got an impression that you present the tension between Americans and anti-Americans as a cosmic struggle, "neither can live while the other survives" sort of thing, world over.
I think I went into this a bit in my other reply. I believe Americans and anti-Americans can coexist peacefully, especially if Americans are able to achieve and maintain political control. If anti-Americans achieved full totalitarian control of society, it would look something like the Chinese social credit score system where you're allowed to live as long as you proclaim anti-American beliefs and engage in performative anti-American activities. Failure to do so would result in punishments ranging from freezing of assets all the way to forced labor camps and organ harvesting. I don't think they'll be able to get there because of 2A, but I think if you did a Thanos snap and anti-Americans had complete control this is how it would be.
If Americans are in control then anti-Americans would just have to endure ridicule (but they would be able to return the favor). Right now ridiculing anti-Americans has the potential to incur the wrath of 3-letter agencies, which just shows how much political power anti-Americans have been able to accrue.
I think other nations could adopt Americanism successfully, but that without the cultural foundation it isn't likely. It is hard to tolerate speech from people you don't agree with, but nothing is more American, and I think most people in the U.S. understand this. I don't know how popular these ideas that demand overcoming base instinct for a principle are where it hasn't been the law of the land for generations.
Fantastic starting point for understanding the Radical American Mind. I sincerely hope the non partisan implications of this thesis can garner support from all sides. I haven’t been a particularly political citizen of late, but this stirs something in me.
Something that struck me in a recent conversation of ours is a delineation of positive versus negative rights. If you ever publish another article on establishing general terminology (which, as someone rather uninitiated, I find very helpful), that might be an interesting topic, especially in light of the hot-button issue of the recent Roe v Wade decision
If I understand you correctly, here you define Americanism as the basis for American statehood only. From our other discussions I got an impression that you present the tension between Americans and anti-Americans as a cosmic struggle, "neither can live while the other survives" sort of thing, world over.
Which one is it? Or is it somehow both?
I think I went into this a bit in my other reply. I believe Americans and anti-Americans can coexist peacefully, especially if Americans are able to achieve and maintain political control. If anti-Americans achieved full totalitarian control of society, it would look something like the Chinese social credit score system where you're allowed to live as long as you proclaim anti-American beliefs and engage in performative anti-American activities. Failure to do so would result in punishments ranging from freezing of assets all the way to forced labor camps and organ harvesting. I don't think they'll be able to get there because of 2A, but I think if you did a Thanos snap and anti-Americans had complete control this is how it would be.
If Americans are in control then anti-Americans would just have to endure ridicule (but they would be able to return the favor). Right now ridiculing anti-Americans has the potential to incur the wrath of 3-letter agencies, which just shows how much political power anti-Americans have been able to accrue.
I think other nations could adopt Americanism successfully, but that without the cultural foundation it isn't likely. It is hard to tolerate speech from people you don't agree with, but nothing is more American, and I think most people in the U.S. understand this. I don't know how popular these ideas that demand overcoming base instinct for a principle are where it hasn't been the law of the land for generations.