I rarely respond to Facebook or LinkedIn comments. My view is that whatever I have to say of substance I’ll say in a blog post, essay, or interview. There are times, however, when I’m willing to make an exception. This comment by “TS” was one of them. It was in response to an Atlantic article by George Packer entitled We Are Living in a Failed State with this subtitle: The coronavirus didn’t break America. It revealed what was already broken.

All you need to know about “TS” is that he’s a businessman in Silicon Valley who apparently equates criticism with anti-US sentiment like all US nationalists. As I mentioned in my response, my guess is that the system works just fine for him but not for the majority of his fellow citizens. The problem is he simply doesn’t care because he’s got his.

TS: The Atlantic has a depressing and hostile view towards America, its President and its citizens. Recall that the Atlantic was cheerleading the Russia Collusion Hoax along with the partisan Impeachment effort while turning a blind eye to Obama administration corruption and mismanagement – so its reporting is not unbiased. This article also does not capture the essence of on the ground daily life experience here, which is that most citizens are frustrated with their city, county and state government unpreparedness and their often draconian responses, not so much with federal preparedness and response, despite what this article, CNN and the BCC say. The author really doesn’t understand the structure and actual functioning of the domestic government in the US.

MAA: Why is it that so many people play the “anti-American” card, whenever they read an article or hear from someone who is critical of the US? One of the problems with this country is that there are too many people, including its political leaders, who believe that it’s “the greatest nation on earth,” despite reams of evidence to the contrary. (This delusion transcends party affiliation.) The subtitle is spot-on: The coronavirus didn’t break America. It revealed what was already broken. I would add that Trump, the malignant narcissist-in-chief, has hastened the decline of the US sans COVID-19. The coronavirus, or rather his deadly mishandling of the same, has injected steroids into this process of decline. The faster you can recognize the long list of problems confronting the US, the faster you can solve them, i.e., patriotism. That’s hard to do when you believe your country is superior to all others, a dictionary definition of nationalism. I imagine the system “as is” is working just fine for people like you but not for most US Americans, e.g., personal debt, unemployment, underemployment, no health insurance, etc., ad nauseam. George Packer? Google him.

Shalom (שלום), MAA