Bizarro Exceptionalism and The America Worst-ers

Reflexively blaming America for all the world’s problems is no better than defending everything the U.S. does

A subset of criticisms of the U.S., its leaders, and its place in the world come from a cynical, pessimistic, occasionally conspiratorial view of America, the West, and liberal democracy. Even in circumstances that offer moral clarity, these sentiments take precedence. It’s a kind of bizarro American Exceptionalism, one in which the United States is by default the primary bad actor in world politics—an “America Worst” framing in which the actions of authoritarian states around the world and illiberals at home must be understood as at least morally, if not causally, entangled with America’s worst failings.

As Arc Digital editor Nicholas Grossman recently put it regarding left-wing arguments against supporting Ukraine, “A swath of Western leftists aren’t anti-imperialism or anti-war, they’re reflexively anti-US/NATO/West. So they cheer on Russian imperialism, ape Russian lies, and are perfectly fine, even happy, to see Russia kill Ukrainians because they think that harms US/Western interests.”

This applies to more than Putin’s Russia. A bevy of commentary—largely, though not exclusively, from the left—excuses Russia’s expansionist aggression, disputes stories about China or North Korea’s human rights abuses, cheers Houthi attacks around Yemen, and more, centering the United States and its allies as the principal authors of the world’s ills.

I have no desire to pretend away the ugly parts of American history or to suggest that U.S. foreign policy is an unalloyed good in the world. But we should be able to distinguish between such qualified assessments and a worldview that embraces the talking points of authoritarians, illiberals, and thuggish killers at face value. The United States is the world’s most powerful country, but hardly the only one. Placing America at the center of all world events sacrifices clarity and understanding for a narcissistic theory of international relations. 

The Reverse Reagan: America Worst Foreign Policy

Thinking this way requires seeing America as a unique, omnipresent force for evil. It’s an inversion of Reagan’s “shining city upon a hill,” with America’s influence and example undermining freedom and warping the course of progress. 

This bizarro exceptionalism is no less an example of political astigmatism than unbridled nationalism. It contorts facts and events to fit its insistence on American insidiousness, and erases the agency of other states, leaders, and non-state actors. In this view, American warmongering and global capitalism—itself an extension of American voraciousness and exploitation—are the defining feature of international relations.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine offers a comprehensive example of this tendency. For example, the DSA’s International Committee issued a statement when the invasion began that asserted, “The Democratic Socialists of America International Committee (DSA IC) opposes this ongoing US brinkmanship, which only further escalates the crisis…” They went on to insist that “NATO is a mechanism for US-led Western imperialist domination, fueling expansionism, militarization, and devastating interventions.”  

It’s simply ridiculous to cast Russia’s attempt to seize Ukraine as a function of American aggression. Doing so not only absolves Putin’s regime of its own entirely voluntary, highly consequential decision to invade and continue attacking, but actively amplifies Russian state propaganda. It renders the Americans who take this position useful idiots at best, and does a disservice to any serious campaign for peace and justice in the region. 

Denialism and Distortion 

It’s not just excusing imperialism when the aggressor is a U.S. adversary. America Worst-ers also subject countries’ internal dynamics to a similar absolving interpretation. This has been at its ugliest in the case of China’s abuse of its Uyghur population. 

In 2020, Monthly Review published a piece by the ethno-nationalist, pro-Chinese Communist Party Qiao Collective that purported to correct Western myths about China. The article, “Sinophobia Inc: Understanding the anti-China Industrial complex,” was pure CCP apologia that dismissed any and all criticism as either xenophobia or strategic misinformation in service of American foreign policy. 

Qiao has partnered on multiple occasions with the American organization CODE PINK, through that group’s China Is Not Our Enemy project. CODE PINK’s resources insist that Joe Biden must “meet Xi Jinping in person for a summit that includes an open and good-faith discussion about human rights,” while promoting resources that mock the allegations of genocide against China’s Uyghurs. Even the vaguest reference to human rights abuse on CODE PINK’s site is couched in a condemnation of U.S. policy: “…we call out the US government for using Xinjiang’s human rights situation to drive war with China.”

The Chinese government has forced over a million people of an ethno-religious minority into concentration camps. And CODE PINK thinks the main problem with that is Americans criticizing it. All this led AEI’s Michael Rubin to argue that “Code Pink’s denial of Uyghur genocide makes it a hate group.” 

There is no need to qualify condemnations of China’s Uyghur policy with criticism of the United States. There is no aspect of American rhetoric or policy that obviates the culpability of Xi and the Chinese state for these abuses. And it is farcical to place the moral burden on Joe Biden to engage in a “good-faith” summit on human rights with a government that will not do so in return. 

American Frames

Most recently, reactions to the current Gaza War show a tendency to misunderstand complex dynamics abroad by imposing American categories of race and oppression onto Israel/Palestine. The most obvious example of this is the way many commentators have forced Israeli Jews into a homogeneous position of whiteness and thus a stand-in for more typically American assessments of justice and injustice. 

The activist Bree Newsome has been one of the worst offenders in this regard. Posting to her nearly half-million followers on X (formerly Twitter), she has attacked the “whiteness” of Zionism. Critics have pointed out that this characterization is sloppy and inaccurate, but Newsome has been strident in her view, even mocking.

This is unhelpful. Israeli Jews are themselves ethnically diverse, and Zionism has complicated, intellectually varied traditions. Are systemic and severe injustices being perpetrated against Palestinians by the Israeli state? Yes, unequivocally. But the history of Israel-Palestine is not illuminated by forcing its internal group relations through the pipes of American racism. 

Bizarro exceptionalism prevents us from effectively advocating for justice abroad. At best, it causes us to distort reality in self-defeating ways. At worst, it can lead us into the terrible quicksand of denialism.

The remedy is not undiluted patriotism. America is a nation with plenty of flaws, past and present. As the world’s largest economy and most powerful military, it exerts a unique influence. 

Yes, America is the world’s superpower, but it is not the architect of all global events. Power, as most scholars and practitioners of politics will tell you, still has its limits. The U.S. has shaped and impacted our world for better and worse, but only a narcissistic and borderline conspiratorial understanding of how power functions in global politics could possibly blame it for all the world’s ills, even ones chosen by other powerful states.