You know, I'm getting really tired of reflexive anti-Americanism†.

There is a lot to criticize about #US culture. Yes. And politics and history and whatever defines us as a nation. We have done and continue to do some really appalling things. Those things should be caught and dissected and disposed of in the biohazard incinerator ... once we understand their biology in intimate detail and make sure we know how to fight them should they infest us again. Because they *will*, and others like them, as long as a country called the #United #States of #America exists.

The same is true of every other country on Earth. If you think it isn't, at best you're dangerously naive. At worst ... well, you're as bad as those Americans who are responsible for the very worst of our reputation. Every country needs criticism. Every power structure relies on violence, implicit or explicit, to maintain itself. Every culture has its strengths and weaknesses. Every people, like every person, needs to be self-aware. To be *better*, or at the very least to avoid being worse.

Because of our unique reach—economic, military, cultural—the rest of the world has good reason to worry more about us than most other countries. (Although some give us a run for our money, which is a *startlingly* American phrase now that I think about it.) Practically everyone on the planet has a stake in what happens here. I have no problem, at all, with criticism from outside, as long as it's well-founded. The same applies to internal criticism, for that matter.

I have a big problem with the idea that Americans *by virtue of being Americans* are automatically ignorant or greedy or violent or ... hell, fill in the stereotype of your choice here. There's a very long list to choose from. It's just as ridiculous as the idea that we're inherently better than everyone else, chosen by history or divine favor to lead the world into a golden age of freedom and prosperity, and anyone who doesn't see that needs to be, uh, *liberated* into understanding.

And because that latter idea is so prevalent, a lot of the former ideas come up as reflex. I get that. I'm just asking you to remember that there are a third of a billion of us, and not only are we #notall *that* kind of American, a whole lot of us actively fight against it. Many of us try to fight in ways that will actually make a difference, too ... rather than the kind of "oh yeah, we're irredeemably awful" nihilism that turns into humblebragging really fast.

Please don't use a club when a scalpel is called for. That's all.

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†Everyone understands what I mean when I say "America" and "American" and its derivations, yes? Good. I am profoundly uninterested in having, again, what may be the stupidest argument on the internet ... and that's a very high bar.