20210131

• a nation is an inherently exclusive phenomena and defines itself in opposition to what it is
  • what counts as American in the US is often defined by what it is not. black people were not properly American until relatively recently, for example
• A socialist nation is therefore a contradiction
• most nations in Europe are younger than the US
  • although “France” or “Germany” pre-date the existence of the US, their governments and nationalisms do not
• it’s hard to blame the Russian or German social democrats for participating in the state when both countries were autocracies where even nominal representation in government was a novelty
• A lot of US leftists believe in what amounts to an inverted American exceptionalism