2 ms·

"American exceptionalism" does not mean "America is an exception to rules" (whatever those rules might be)

• nfg 13y ago
  What does it mean then?
  • keiferski 13y ago
    It refers to the belief that Americans as a people are specially suited for doing things exceptionally.
    • basch 13y ago
      american exceptionalism generally refers to the state and its machine not the people.
• dragonwriter 13y ago
  > "American exceptionalism" does not mean "America is an exception to rules" (whatever those rules might be) The term was first used by Stalin to describe and condemn the position of the prominent voice in the Communist Party of the United States of America about how, precisely, the US was an exception to the rule of inevitability of revolution. While usage has shifted in terms of exactly what rule is at issue, what you reject is exactly what American Exceptionalism has always meant. (The idea of "American Exceptionalism", though not the term itself, is generally tied back to an older quote [EDIT: by de Toqueville -- not sure how I missed including that originally] in which particular traits were identified which made America exceptional as opposed to being an example through which democratic nations in general should be viewed -- or, IOW, that America broke rather than made the rules for democracies. Which, while from a different perspective than Stalin's use of the term, also is an instance of America being an exception to rules.)