Karl wrote:Totally agreed. Particularly interesting point about their propaganda and self-image -- I think Americans have historically idolised the concept & implementation of liberal democracy, but they have also simplistically equated that with AMERICA!!!, and now there are huge numbers of people there that simply idolise AMERICA!!! no matter what it does. It's a particularly dumb and insipid form of patriotism.
Americans have done that for years, but I think it is interesting how that propaganda works on non-American bleeding heart liberals as well. As much as I can see what is happening, there is a very large part of me that can’t help thinking that America is good and would never turn full Nazi. I know it is bullshit, I know that America has done terrible things (even before Trump), but that propaganda is powerful.
I think we were all complacent and thought that the world was only going to get better. The racism and murderous tyrants that have plagued human history were either a thing of the past, or something that only happens in third world nations. Women got the vote, equal rights for black people were passed, gay rights were taking massive leaps forward, America got a black President – the world was moving forward and getting better and better.
We forgot that the horrors of the past were not that long ago. Nazi death camps are still within living memory and are not something that could never happen again, a financial downturn here and a populist demagogue there and suddenly it doesn’t seem all that ridiculous that the world could fall backwards.
And (to stay on topic
) post Brexit Britain will be right there behind the US, because we need that strawberry floating trade deal.