The Topic has as a premise a basic fallacy.
It is a Category Error.
Talking about "America" is like talking about "Christianity" because there ain't no such thing--except as a concept.
The article you referenced feels like it was penned by a fringe radical POV rather than a neutral journalist. I did some checking.
Vox senior correspondent Amanda Taub
in each of the articles I've read takes the point of view that Terrorists were created by their victims. That's right, blame the victims.
Radicals exist within every microcosm in some degree.
We are not supposed to blame ISLAM for terrorists, right?
Then why blame America for Manifest Destiny?
Manifest Destiny? Are you serious?
The phrase appeared in an article in a very obscure magazine in Texas in 1845. The article was on annexation of Texas--not the World at Large! It was published in the July-August edition of the United States Magazine and the Democratic Review.
Not one person in a thousand would have read it. It couldn't have influenced people who didn't read it, could it? No.
So, it's silly to extrapolate backwards through actual history and try to make this a rallying cry of an entire nation.
One wonders how solution oriented it is to lock the barn door after the horses have run off.
This approach to problem solving harkens back to a time when women who were rape victims were blamed for wearing the wrong clothes because it meant they were "asking for it." This is wrong-headed for rape and just as wrong for terrorism.
What does the USA have in common with a rape victim? Both have been terrorized by radicals.
Is the entire population of the U.S. guilty of "Asking for it?"
The people of America have little or nothing to do with the policies of a President and his Military advisors and their often Jingoistic exploits abroad. Most often, the really unfortunate Black Ops, such as under Reagan (Iran-Contra) aren't even known by the President himself!
So, forgot the hegemony as far as dragging the American people into it.
Ideology splits people down the middle!
What Dems do the GOP decry. What the GOP does, the Dems decry.
Half the country, at any one moment, is displeased with what the other half is enthusiastically endorsing.
Hillary lovers don't appreciate Bernie Sanders. Bernie lovers are dead set against HIllary.
The Republican establishment really dislikes Ted and Donald down to their toenails.
The voting population is pretty much stuck with lousy choices, no matter what.
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