Reality Can’t Defeat Nostalgia and Manipulation

Visionaries devised captivating narratives to manifest a fantasy, and willful belief in frivolous tales concocted American ideals.

American exceptionalism was always problematic, especially since the United States was never more extraordinary, egalitarian, or morally superior than other nations. Yet, Americans embraced folklore and cultivated a fanciful reality, and the national narcissism that asserted God blessed the US has remained a collective psychological phenomenon for centuries.

Politicians and affluent intellects invented the nation’s myth, identity, and culture, and the media has reinforced them since their inception. A shared nationalistic story established social cohesion to nation-build a settler colonial state not bound together by ethnicity or religion. Unlike fascist Germany, the United States relies on anecdotes to unite and mobilize citizens to pursue the political elite’s missions.

These social constructs justify global economic and military dominance, wars to defend democracy, and interventions in foreign countries’ elections because the US must civilize the immoral world. The fantasized history and identity…