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I don't think the term "unamerican" should be used seriously. It has no strict definition and is often used to encourage an "Us vs Them" mentality and brings to

I don't think the term "unamerican" should be used seriously. It has no strict definition and is often used to encourage an "Us vs Them" mentality and brings to mind the "no true Scotsman" fallacy. I believe tribalism is a vestigial trait most harmful to modern humanity and it should be discouraged whenever possible. We have changed our environment faster than evolution can keep up, so we are going to have to use our conscious minds to compensate if we are to stand a chance at long-term survival. This needn't be limited to genetic modification. Society can be modified, and it starts with one mind.

jacobolus 6y ago
White supremacist violence clearly has a long history in America, and a significant support base, from the founding down to the present day. So calling it "un-American" is a bit selective about what counts as American. What we can fairly call this is anti-republican and seditious.
- deleted 6y ago
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metabagel 6y ago
In this context, I think you're being unnecessarily pedantic. When the President foments an angry mob to attack the capitol and threaten the lives of legislators, we are through the looking glass.
toast0 6y ago
> I don't think the term "unamerican" should be used seriously. It has no strict definition and is often used to encourage an "Us vs Them" mentality and brings to mind the "no true Scotsman" fallacy. It's whatever the House Un-American Activities Committee doesn't like, isn't it?
scarmig 6y ago
If someone flew a plane into the White House to destroy the American government, is that anti-American? If someone invites a mob to attack the Capitol and take the national legislature hostage, is that anti-American?
samizdis 6y ago
I am a Brit, but respect the usage of "unAmerican". To me, the equivalents on this side of the pond are expressions such as, "That's just not cricket", or, "Do have a care", or "Steady on, now." These are idioms that express a culture, they are not intended to define rigidly some rules, but rather express a sentiment about shared and almost undefinable values.
- dbtc 6y ago
  I think "un-american" is different from those examples because of the history https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_Un-American_Activities_Committee https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_Un-American_Activities_C...
  - samizdis 6y ago
    Ah, I had never seriously associated the expression with that. I'd heard of the committee, and have some shallow understanding of the whole McCarthy era (as we vaguely call it over here), but I have always dismissed that - as far as idiom/the vernacular language goes - as a corruption and a glitch. To me (not an American), unAmerican still implies "a bad sport", it doesn't carry the negatives associated with the McCarthy thing - which, to me and my peers, was decidedly unAmerican - a perversion of the sentiment that's for decades been acknowledged as evil and dismissed accordingly.

jacobolus 6y ago

White supremacist violence clearly has a long history in America, and a significant support base, from the founding down to the present day. So calling it "un-American" is a bit selective about what counts as American. What we can fairly call this is anti-republican and seditious.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

metabagel 6y ago

In this context, I think you're being unnecessarily pedantic. When the President foments an angry mob to attack the capitol and threaten the lives of legislators, we are through the looking glass.

toast0 6y ago

> I don't think the term "unamerican" should be used seriously. It has no strict definition and is often used to encourage an "Us vs Them" mentality and brings to mind the "no true Scotsman" fallacy. It's whatever the House Un-American Activities Committee doesn't like, isn't it?

scarmig 6y ago

If someone flew a plane into the White House to destroy the American government, is that anti-American? If someone invites a mob to attack the Capitol and take the national legislature hostage, is that anti-American?

samizdis 6y ago

I am a Brit, but respect the usage of "unAmerican". To me, the equivalents on this side of the pond are expressions such as, "That's just not cricket", or, "Do have a care", or "Steady on, now." These are idioms that express a culture, they are not intended to define rigidly some rules, but rather express a sentiment about shared and almost undefinable values.

dbtc 6y ago
I think "un-american" is different from those examples because of the history https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_Un-American_Activities_Committee https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_Un-American_Activities_C...
- samizdis 6y ago
  Ah, I had never seriously associated the expression with that. I'd heard of the committee, and have some shallow understanding of the whole McCarthy era (as we vaguely call it over here), but I have always dismissed that - as far as idiom/the vernacular language goes - as a corruption and a glitch. To me (not an American), unAmerican still implies "a bad sport", it doesn't carry the negatives associated with the McCarthy thing - which, to me and my peers, was decidedly unAmerican - a perversion of the sentiment that's for decades been acknowledged as evil and dismissed accordingly.