The death of American Exceptionalism: what other country sent "undesirables" outside of their country to meet their dire fate? By Hal M. Brown (Many people don't know where Auschwitz was. )

 

Buchenwald and Dachau were in Germany. Many people may not know that Auschwitz and Treblinka were in Poland.

Here are excerpts from two websites:

Throughout German-occupied Europe, the Germans arrested those who resisted their domination and those they judged to be racially inferior or politically unacceptable. People arrested for resisting German rule were mostly sent to forced-labor or concentration camps. The Germans deported Jews from all over occupied Europe to extermination camps in Poland, where they were systematically killed, and also to concentration camps, where they were used for forced labor. Transit camps such as Westerbork, Gurs, Mechelen, and Drancy in western Europe and concentration camps like Bolzano and Fossoli di Carpi in Italy were used as collection centers for Jews, who were then deported by rail to the extermination camps. According to SS reports, there were more than 700,000 prisoners registered in the concentration camps in January 1945. Reference

Here’s an excerpt from another article:

But as horrific as they were, they were only three camp complexes in a system of more than 850 ghettos, concentration camps, forced-labor camps and extermination camps that the Nazis established during the 12 years Adolf Hitler was in power.

By the end of World War II in 1945, the death camp system stretched from France and the Netherlands in the west to Estonia, Lithuania and Poland in the east.

There were 20 main concentration camps, many of which had many subcamps, according to Geoffrey Megargee, the editor of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos. Reference.

Thom Hartmann referenced this in his RawStory article about Trump musing over sending “Tesla thugs” to prison in El Salvadore.

Excerpt:

Trump’s people are trying to argue that the government of Venezuela sent these people to “invade” the United States and therefore they’re justified in suspending habeas corpus. It’s an outrageous argument, and if they get away with it there’s little to prevent them from coming after dissident American citizens they can charge with “rebellion” against Trump or being a “threat to public safety.”

No lawyer. No court hearing. No judge. No jury. Trump simply has you arrested, and you end up in a private prison in a foreign country where you have no enforceable rights whatsoever.

(It’s useful to note that Hitler also moved out of Germany the people he’d targeted. While over 1000 labor and prison camps were built within that country, the death camps where the real horrors happened were located outside Germany: Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Sobibór, Bełżec, Chełmno, and Majdanek were all in Poland. Trump’s running a similar scam with El Salvador.)

It is true that the Salvadoran prisons are not death camps. At least we can be glad that no first world country is practicing mass extermination as a cost effective method of getting rid of enemies of the state. Genoicide, however, as of 2017 was still happening five counties: Myanmar, South Sudan, Iran & Syria, Central African Republic, and Sudan. (Reference, Business Insider)

We have a president who is not only sending gang members (or alleged gang members) to a prison in El Salvadore, but who has floated the idea sending 'thug' Tesla vandals to the same prison. (Reference)

This is from RawStory:

President Donald Trump on Friday mused about sending American citizens who allegedly vandalized Tesla cars and charging stations to an infamous prison in El Salvador where he has already shipped purported Venezuelan gang members.

Writing on his Truth Social platform, Trump gloated about capturing the alleged Tesla vandals and fantasized about them being on the receiving end of gruesome punishments.

"I look forward to watching the sick terrorist thugs get 20 year jail sentences for what they are doing to Elon Musk and Tesla. Perhaps they could serve them in the prisons of El Salvador, which have become so recently famous for such lovely conditions!" Trump wrote.

In fact, the prison in El Salvador is notorious for its poor conditions.

As a recent article in Foreign Policy explained this week, "human rights organizations have gathered credible evidence of systematic corruption, torture, and killings" at the jail.

Trump has given Elon Musk his marching orders: cut goverment spending so we can give tax breaks to billionaires no mater the consequences. As you’re doing this, help me satisfy my insatiable need for revenge and make me tumescent as I fantasize about being the most manly man in history.

Here’s a partial bullet list of what Trump’s mini/maxi me has done with Trump’s reactions.

• Send innocent people to prison in El Salvordore. No problem.

• Cut life saving vaccination programs to children in other countries die. No problem.

• Cut funds for medical research in this country. No problem.

• Let the gang that can’t shoot straight run the Pentagon. No problem.

• Scare the bejesus out of Social Security recipients. No problem.

• Cut services at the Veterans Administration. No problem.

• Distrupt the lives of thousands of government employees. No problem.

The list goes on… and on… and on. 

What fresh hell will he unleash next? 

Look at all the aspects of what has been called American exceptionalism and put them on a dart board and close your eyes and throw a dart.

Here’s a defintion of American exceptionalism:

American exceptionalism is the belief that the United States is either distinctive, unique, or exemplary compared to other nations. Proponents argue that the values, political system, and historical development of the U.S. are unique in human history, often with the implication that it is both destined and entitled to play a distinct and positive role on the world stage.

It originates in the observations and writings of French political scientist and historian Alexis de Tocqueville, most notably in his comparison of the United States with Great Britain and his native France. Tocqueville was the first writer to describe the country as "exceptional" following his travels there in 1831. The earliest documented use of the specific term "American exceptionalism" is by American communists in intra-communist disputes in the late 1920s. ^(Wikipedia)

There are two other terms not currently in vogue, but we should consider what they mean. These are Americanism and American patriotism:

Americanism, also referred to as American patriotism, is a set of nationalist values which aim to create a collective American identity for the United States that can be defined as "an articulation of the nation's rightful place in the world, a set of traditions, a political language, and a cultural style imbued with political meaning". According to the American Legion, a U.S. veterans' organization, Americanism is an ideology, or a belief in devotion, loyalty, or allegiance to the United States of America, or respect for its flag, its traditions, its customs, its culture, its symbols, its institutions, or its form of government. In the words of Theodore Roosevelt, "Americanism is a question of spirit, conviction, and purpose, not of creed or birthplace."

Americanism has two different meanings: the defining characteristics of the United States, or loyalty to the United States and defense of American political ideals. These ideals include but are not limited to independence, equality before the law, freedom of speech, democracy, and progress. Wikipedia.

I have been pondering why Trump would want to do all of this. What could be going on in his mind? Why would he want to destroy all that is good in America? What motivates Musk and all the others helping him do this? 

Can all of these people really want to nazify the country? If so, why would they want to do this. Could they all have been so wounded in childhood that they are acting this out as adults

I’ll think about this. I don’t know if I’ll come up with an answer.

Related story:

Another related story:

Trump and his Gesatpo enforcers reaction probably is along the lines of “so what, in order to make an omelet you gotta breaksome eggs.” 

Read my previous Substacks here.

Is America Really The Greatest Show On Earth?

From the American world map (below) one might assume they are the ONLY show on Earth.

Click here to see the poster I made the above illustration from. One could argue that this was the greatest show on earth.

Map makers from other countries would beg to differ.

Above are maps of the world from several countries.

By Hal Brown

We hear a lot about American exceptionalism, mostly from Republicans. Wikipedia defines this as:

American exceptionalism is the belief that the United States is either distinctive, unique, or exemplary compared to other nations.  

Proponents argue that the values, political system, and historical development of the U.S. are unique in human history, often with the implication that it is both destined and entitled to play a distinct and positive role on the world stage.

Critics of the concept claim that the idea of American exceptionalism suggests that the US is better than other countries, has a superior culture, or has a unique mission to transform the planet and its inhabitants. 

I've written about Trump being a malignant narcissist. 

For example this web search turns up these among other blogs I wrote explaining why I considered Donald Trump to meet the criteria for being a malignant narcissist:

Two decades before John Gartner, writing about Trump, made us aware of what a malignant narcissist was the term was used on the TV show Luther

Nobody knows for certain how Trump feels except Trump

Dr. Justin Frank, author of "Trump on the Couch" gives us understatement of the decade about Trump's behavior

 Some election day psychology: A primer on narcissistic and antisocial personality disorders

Once upon a time shrinks like me warned about Trump's malignant narcissism

I think there's also a phenomena which could be accurately called American malignant narcissism. The crucial word here is "malignant" meaning malevolent. This goes far beyond patriotism and taking pride in what's good about the United States both historically and in the present. 

My impression (from watching international movies and TV) is that people in many countries to varying degrees think their countries are better than other countries.  By and large I see this as healthy narcissism, i.e.,  a positive sense of country similar to having a self-image that is in alignment with the greater good.

It's hard to imagine what those who live in democracies around the world think of the United States, especially those who live in coutries with a strong social safety net where it is a given that tax money should be spent to assure that the less fortunate are adequately taken care of.

We have the front runner in the GOP primary poised to either go to prison or the presidency running against a state governor who doesn't believe in having his state teach the truth in its schools, wants books banned, and thinks slavery taught slaves useful skills, and a rich guy hogging much of the news coverage of the Republican primary who never held a government position who has his own 10 Commandments:

• 1. God is real.
• 2. There are two genders.
• 3. Human flourishing requires fossil fuels.
• 4. Reverse racism is racism.
• 5. An open border is no border.
• 6. Parents determine the education of their children.
• 7. The nuclear family is the greatest form of governance known to mankind.
• 8. Capitalism lifts people up from poverty.
• 9. There are three branches of the U.S. government, not four.
• 10. The U.S. Constitution is the strongest guarantor of freedoms in history.

Then we have today's American news as covered by Aljazeera and the BBC (click images to go to articles):

Trump's mantra, Make America Great Again, and his raging against so-called globalists (currently attacking everyone as globalists at Fox News), I thinks are being read by our allies as giving them a metaphorical finger.

...

No doubt Putin's pleased with this. Consider what the defintion of a globalism is:

Globalism refers to various patterns of meaning beyond the merely international. It is used by political scientists, such as Joseph Nye, to describe "attempts to understand all the interconnections of the modern world—and to highlight patterns that underlie (and explain) them."  

While primarily associated with world-systems, it can be used to describe other global trends. The concept of globalism is also classically used to distinguish the ideologies of globalization (the subjective meanings) from the processes of globalization (the objective practices).In this sense, globalism is to globalization what nationalism is to nationality.

The term is now frequently used as a pejorative by far right movements and conspiracy theorists. False usage in this way has also been associated with antisemitism, as antisemites frequently appropriate the term globalist to refer to Jews. More from Wikpedia.

Make America great again? 

How about doing something about the fact that after car accidents guns are the next leading cause of death among children? How about addressing the rising suicide rate among children even as young as five? Mass shootings, often using assault rifles, have become weekly, if not daily events, but any efforts to enact gun control laws are dead on arrival in Congress.

Why don't anti-abortion zealots consider our infant mortality rates and look at why more infants die in southern states than in northern states, and that the infant death rates are higher among minorities? (Reference)

Just now being reported on MSNBC: We have a half million people in jail waiting trial, mostly Blacks and brown men, because they can't afford bail, often as low as $500.

Consider where the United States ranks among nations for the number of people who are homeless (interactive map).

Quote: While it is considered the leader of the world stage, the United States still has one of the biggest problems with homelessness, even when compared to more impoverished countries. With a homeless population per night of over half a million souls, the numbers are concerning. The volume of homeless increases every year - with many more living in makeshift tents and other dwellings that do little more than offer some brief respite from the harsh outdoor conditions, such as at nighttime or during the winter.

If anybody thought that United States could never outdo the KKK as an influential and dangerous social movement they didn't consider QAnon.

Various congressional districts have actually elected people who believe in the paranoid delusions espoused by QAnon.