While China and Russia honor their historic defeat of fascism, the West has revitalized it. The doctrine of exceptionalism serves as a modern justification for genocide and imperial aggression.
Victory Day! China just commemorated the 80th anniversary of its victory over Japan in the Second World War. This comes several months after Russiaâs own massive celebration of the Great Patriotic War and its victory over Hitlerâs Nazi war machine. I find the unfathomable sacrifices honored at these celebrations to be sacred. More than 80% of the Nazis were vanquished on the Eastern Front. This test of strength came at the great expense of 25 to 30 million Soviets. But more significantly, the Great Patriotic War was fought against Nazi ideology around notions of German supremacy. Unfortunately, the causes and costs of this war have been forgotten, while our current geopolitical order demonstrates that the lessons against supremacist ideologies were not fully internalized. The reality is that, while the Soviets won the war, the Nazis ultimately won the âpeace.â
If Nazi ideology had to be boiled down into one idea, it would be that Germans are superior - culturally, spiritually, intellectually and physically. This âsuperiorityâ is presumably intrinsic - cosmically derived. An ethereal superiority that transcends the physical. It is not what you do and the outcomes you promote; it is a matter of what you are.
How is this different from U.S. exceptionalism or Western exceptionalism more broadly? The assumption that the U.S. and Europe are culturally, socially and morally superior underlies an ideological belief that 15% of the world should lead the other 85%. Western exceptionalism is Nazi ideology rebranded for the modern era, with the same deranged ideas of self-declared ethereal superiority. Even worse, this belief in western exceptionalism is not articulated only by a single rogue state in Europe. It is fully accepted and acted upon by all of the European elites as they latch their fates to the U.S.
During the Cold War, the US presented itself as freedom, justice, love and light: Look at our massive, shiny supermarkets - we have magnificent bread aisles. Compare us to that repressive Soviet Union - who would you prefer to side with?â The US would eventually win the Cold War, aided by the fall of the Soviet Union. This victory is reflected in the current world order, where, for a time, no other state appeared to threaten the USâs unipolar moment.
Over time, the U.S. hegemon and its vassals in Europe internalized a belief in their own transcendental goodness. We are now in a different environment. Where once these western states used âsoft powerâ (tools of diplomacy, international assistance, and cultural exchanges) to assert dominance, they now deploy a naked hegemony. Thus, former US president Barack Obama could openly claim, âWe are the indispensable nation.â So fervent is this conviction that the West has conjured up a counter to international law â the supposed ârules-based order.â This is the essence of Western exceptionalism: our superiority, which comes from some cosmic source, justifies our disregard of international laws and norms. We make the rules, and you non-exceptional others follow the orders. And, over time, as western power is challenged, its elites have resorted to violence or threats of violence â economic or kinetic.
More interesting and also strikingly similar to Nazi ideology is the manner in which this conviction in western superiority is completely untethered to physical reality. For US and western exceptionalism, superiority is cosmically derived. Actions, no matter how degenerate or depraved, have no bearing on that transcendental quality of superiority. It remains white as snow even as it is dragged through rivers of blood.
So the US and Europe can overthrow a democratically elected government in Ukraine, leading to war and the death and dismemberment of millions, and call it a revolution. They can then bring to power a regime full of literal Nazis but claim to be aiding democracy. The US and Europe can empower (through weapons and diplomatic cover) their colony of squatters, Israel, to prosecute what is considered by international organizations and most people of the world, a literal genocide, starving millions of women and children, bombing tents and murdering âdangerousâ babies while openly declaring its intentions to ethnically cleanse Palestine. The president of the United States can, in one breath, call Iran a terrorist âregimeâ while, in the other, shake the hand of the head-chopping leader of ISIS in Syria, a leader that it, along with the Gulf States, Turkey and Israel, installed. Meanwhile, the headchopper leader in Syria has unleashed his fascist goons to mass murder Alawites, Druze, and Christian minority populations without a word from the âexceptionalâ West. The US can attack Iran unprovoked and can murder Venezuelans in a speedboat and call them drug dealers to cover the crime. When criticized for breaking âinternational lawâ, the US vice president responded with: âI donât give a sh** what you call it.â The US can murder North Korean fishermen in a failed operation to spy on that country. The US can commit industrial terrorism, such as blowing up the Nord Stream pipeline and, without taking a breath, blame the victim of the terrorism, claiming Russia blew up its own pipeline. Western governments are run by literal sociopaths who loudly proclaim virtue as they disregard law, sovereignty, and human life.
Compounding all of this is a Western media propaganda apparatus that would make German Nazi, Paul Goebbels, blush with envy at the scale of its lies and its normalizing of the depraved behavior of its regimes. The Western public, ultimately, either accepts their governmentsâ racist argument of divine exceptionalism or is unaware of the depths of their depravity. Both options amount to the same ends: oceans of blood.
The ultimate problem with this posture of Western exceptionalism is the same problem Nazi Germany faced, which, thankfully, led to its total destruction. As a rule, racist people donât see the world clearly, and sooner or later, their hubris and mendacity lead to their demise. They exalt their virtues and overestimate their capabilities while downplaying the virtues and capabilities of their adversaries. Similar to Nazi Germany invading the Soviet Union without the logistics to back up such an operation, Europe and the US underestimated Russia, assuming that both their economic sanctions and the Ukrainian proxy army that they funded and trained would defeat the Russian Federation. Of course, this arrogance and exceptionalist belief ensured that their plan would fail spectacularly.
Similarly, the genocidal regime Israelâfully supported by the West, and full from drinking the blood of Palestiniansâdecided that a country of 8 million can take down a country of 90 million. It took 12 days of taking the worst beating of its existence for Israel to be disabused of that delusion. In the end, it needed to be saved by an unprovoked attack by its colonial master, the U.S.
Reality is asserting itself for Europe as severely as it asserted itself for the Third Reich. In the same way, we saw Berlinâs government flounder in complete delusion as the country burned with the shock of the contradiction between an ideology of being superior, all while all consequences indicated the contrary. We see a similarity with Europe metaphorically burning as its unhinged and delusional leaders, completely dependent on âDaddyâ U.S. for any action they take, while their societies crumble around them.
The German economy is in recession, with companies closing and mass layoffs. France and the UK are in a budgetary crisis, with screaming headlines that they may need to beg the IMF for financial assistance. The French government just collapsed with calls to impeach President Macron if he doesnât step aside. Friedrich Merz, the deeply unpopular German Chancellor, has decried Europeâs irrelevance in world events, openly stating that Germany needs to cut back on social benefits to its own population. All the while, these failing governments are still giving billions to Project Ukraine. To make this situation even more cartoonish, the US bragged openly that it was pushing a bankrupt Europe to pay for the continuation of the war and would be charging Europe a 10% premium on the weapons being sold just because it could. The conditions in the US arenât much better, given that the government is $37 trillion in debt, and people are living shorter, more desperate lives in a desperate, declining empire.
I end where I began: US and Western exceptionalism is a cancer, every bit as much as Nazi Germany exceptionalism. It will ultimately come to the same end.
Jamarl L. Thomas is an analyst covering domestic and international politics on radio, TV, and the internet. He hosted Fault Lines on 105.5FM in Washington, DC for the last several years, but currently runs the Jamarl Thomas Morning Show from 7 am to 10 am, Monday through Friday, on the Jamarl Thomas YouTube channel. You can also find him on Twitter at theProgSoapbox.
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