Redefining American Exceptionalism: Interview with Danny Haiphong

Broadcast 11/2/2019 at 10:10 AM EDT (10 Listens, 9 Downloads, 2242 Itunes)
The Rob Kall Bottom Up Radio Show Podcast

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Danny Haiphong is an activist and journalist residing in the New York City area. He is a regular contributor to the Black Agenda Report and the American Herald Tribune. Haiphong's work was recently featured in Cynthia McKinney's new book How the U.S. Creates S*ithole Countries. He is co-author of the book American Exceptionalism and American Innocence: A People's History of Fake News-From the Revolutionary War to the War on Terror.

Notes Pre and during interview:

History of US is a history of fake news.

Myth that the United States is a force for good in the world.

American Exceptionalism and American Innocence (E&I)

Dominant destructive ideologies

E&I dual fantasy

Define A and E

AE operates under colonial logic

AE is a cultural drug from which our imagination must be freed.

AE suggests that people and culture are exceptional

Liberalism is deeply tied to Exclusion, dispossession and slavery, i.e, right to freedom for some hinges on unfreedom for others.

AE is a weapon of oppression. How is it wielded, In whose interests?

Unamericanaccusation to those who question AE

AEI stories told to justify and excuse

Myth of meritocracy cloaked in AE and imperialism

Presumption of Innocence

AE and fake news about American Rvolution, WWII, Korean War, War on Terror

Common Sense of AEI

Stagnation and decline of American capitalism

How AEI shape the limits of what can be thought and imagined.

Narratives used to maintain AEI

Narrative erased to tolerate AEI

Counterstories

AEI an violence and military

Dem Party Became the political engine of AE

Politics of Inclusivity

RESISTANCE

FOCUS ON INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY

"Fake news has, indeed, been the only news disseminated by the rules of the US empire."

Oprah Winfrey based her entire career on promoting the American Dream

Hollywood Blockbusters used as prime military recruitment tools

99.5% of US cinema is a totally pernicious propaganda machine

Universities almost never question E&I

E&I narratioves work together to serve White Supremacy, empire capitalism and the US war machine

Goal is to get people to let go of American E&I

What does E&I look like in everyday life?

Can't be a staunch feminist, anti-racist, while believing in AE as a superior force for good.

80% of workers go paycheck to paycheck

American exceptionalism dehumanizes most people in the world, for the purpose of exporting American Imperalism

History of struggle against US imperialism, exceptionalism, exploitation.

Myth of the American Dream

Fake news about WWII

Topics that would be fun to discuss in relation to the book would be the real U.S. legacy in World War II, Charlottesville and the Real Monuments to White Supremacy, and the Politics of Inclusion, also known as "diversity." I also like to relate the book to ongoing developments, such as the 2020 election and the U.S. coup attempt in Venezuela.

Fake news has been the only news disseminated by the rules of U.S. empire.

Role of Sports in exceptionalism.

Role of American Media

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