knee-jerk reflexive "America is the world's greatest evil" is no different

[cali]

than knee-jerk, "America is the greatest nation ever and can do no wrong". It is, in fact, remarkably the same. And it comes from the same simplistic binary mode of "thinking". And yes, there's plenty of the former here at ol' DU.

Both views are devoid of any shred of critical thinking and both are almost entirely emotional reactions rooted in a particular dogma. The dogma of the latter is American Exceptionalism, the dogma of the former is simply another form of American Exceptionalism.

[BeFree]

1. Eh?

So, we really are just Bozo's on the bus?

[Captain Hilts]

2. Most people on DU think in binary mode. All good or all bad. nt

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

9. Most people think in binary mode. All good or all bad. nt

FTFY.

[Captain Hilts]

10. I thought part of being a liberal was seeing some grey. Evidently, not. nt

[stray cat]

12. Not so much - few see Rush Limbaugh or Madoff when any sympathy

and almost none try to understand why many rural individuals support the GOP.

[Captain Hilts]

16. I've lived in too many different places to think that clearly about anyone.

My work in politics as a pollster also was an eye opener.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

13. I think it goes like this:

80% of self-professed liberals think in black and white.
99.99% of self-professed conservatives think in black and white.

There's that, and there's trolling, too. There's no way in hell ALL of the pirate-loving posts are from liberal/leftists who genuinely feel that way.

[arcadian]

26. I don't agree. There are plenty of USA! RahRah! people who think in black and white.

But if you point out anything that isn't "USA Rah Rah" in the past few days to these people then you are a "pirate lover" whatever that is. One poster told me that I was an Al Qeada sympathizer, :wtf:

[Renew Deal]

3. What you're describing has been one of the most frustrating aspects of DU in the last few days.

There are people here that seem either be against anything positive happening in the US or just against everything. It's sometimes hard to figure out which camp these people in. But I don't think I'm overstating it when I saw that there are people on DU (and freeperville) that just want America to fail to fulfill some half baked world view.

[Dreamer Tatum]

4. Binary thinking has its roots in self-hatred, not intellect

And not only is there a lot of binary thinking here, but there is rationalized binary thinking: it's good if someone I like does it, bad otherwise.

[On the Road]

7. I Never Thought of It as Being Related to Self-Hatred

Will have to think about that. A lot of binary thinkers seems to have a high opinion of themselves.

[Dreamer Tatum]

11. And people who think too much of themselves are usually covering for...

...something they fear will become exposed, or some self-perceived shortcoming.

[On the Road]

20. It Could Be --

Will have an eye out for that. It would suggest a different way of dealing with people who argue on a binary basis.

[DevonRex]

5. You are quite right and thank God somebody said it. Now pirates are "good"

according to some people because America is always "bad." Now that I've seen how far they will go in blaming America for every damned thing on earth, I can ignore them for the poor, insane souls that they are. They need help. I hope they get it.

No person or country on earth is all good or all bad. As for the pirates, my sympathy for any person's hard life ENDS at the point of the gun that person is holding to my head.

[arcadian]

15. Pot, kettle, black.

"They need help. I hope they get it." Same exaggerated comments the OP is describing. Yeah, DU is full of people who need to be in an insane asylum. Your world must be really scary if you see "crazy people" when ever you venture out. BOOGA-WOOGA!1!!! :rofl:

[DevonRex]

18. So, you're one of "pirates good, America bad" crowd. Poor you.

[stray cat]

22. how about innocent hostage free good - certainly thats not bad

[DevonRex]

23. That's my take on it. Freed hostage good. Navy Seals OMG good.

Anybody who takes hostages at gunpoint and demands a ransom and says they'll kill the guy if they don't get it? BAD.

[Name removed]

25. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[arcadian]

24. Man, you are full of presumption and speculation.

Do you base any of your opinions on any sort of facts?

[Captain Hilts]

27. I couldn't have typed it better. nt

[DevonRex]

30. Thank you. :)

:hug:

[gratuitous]

6. Agreed

Especially when a nuanced, thoughtful post gets pushed into one camp or the other by that same simplistic binary mode of "thinking" or "posting" by folks too in love with their own mindset that a discouraging or encouraging word becomes the pretext for incendiary mindless reaction.

[TwilightZone]

8. Yes, and that applies to nearly all forms of absolutism.

The inability to see shades of gray is usually a trait of the right, but, wow, have I see a lot of it around here lately.

[LeftishBrit]

14. I agree

same goes for any country. I often say I am against exceptionalism for or against a country: blind support for everything that a country does is just the other side of the coin from its opposite: bogeynation-creation. And turning your own country into a bogeynation is no better than turning anywhere else into a bogeynation.

Being non-American myself, I tend to notice anti-American exceptionalism most commonly from *non*-Americans, but it is interesting that it occurs within America as well. But you get the same in the UK - even if you exclude the pro-independence Scottish, Welsh and Irish Nationalists from this equation, you still get the extremes of 'Britain is always right!'; 'Britannia rule the waves!' on the one side and 'Britain is always wrong'; 'Britain is a degenerate/fascist/corrupt country' on the other. Sometimes it's essentially the same people - a certain type of jingoist gets disillusioned because Britain is clearly no longer Ruling the Waves, and turns into a reverse-jingoist constantly attacking Britain for its 'degeneracy'.

(edited for spelling)

[HughMoran]

17. . . . - - - . . .

:)

[Arctic Dave]

19. Well said. The last few days I wasn't sure what web site I was on.

I also noticed something kind of interesting:
I may just be paranoid, but it would seem that the trolls are becoming smarter in the way they present them self. They to now take on a similar name of a more prominent poster(Cali became Kali) and proceed to act an ass. There are about a half dozen in the past month. Anyways, nice post.

[cobalt1999]

21. I think there is a group that likes to be outraged.

If they have to go through a series of connections to tie any event back to America, so be it. They play sort of a political version of 6 degrees of separation or the Kevin Bacon movie game in order to get the issue back to the U.S.A.

If it's the fault of the U.S., then they get to show their outrage and anger again. As long as the story is about criminals holding people for ransom money, well...what's the fun in that for them?

[cali]

28. kick. for certain posters I had in mind when I wrote this

and who will assiduously avoid posting here.

[TwilightZone]

29. They likely do not see themselves as extremists.

Only the "other" side is capable of groupthink, lockstep, binary thinking, extremism, blah, blah.

My beliefs and I are mainstream, even if they're not.