... that my country is so hopeless we wouldn't be able to wipe our own backsides
Armchair Critic,
Let the Left's PC continue & this will become true !

Hi Howard,

I think you are missing the point. Let me show you how.

You agree the USA is an exceptional country because of the contribution of the research, scholarship, and its scientific community.

Yet you disparage the contribution of the philosophical talents of their Founding Fathers and the various Governments and Market Giants that have implemented the base economics and philosophies of the likes of Scottish thinkers of David Hulme and Adam Smith, as well was their own John Stuart Mill and countless other writers and thinkers. Their contributions have been made for over nearly 250 years.

The contribution, of these people and institutions created the conditions and climate, and the CASH that has enabled the USA to lead the world, and attract the best brains from around the world, in scientific and technological development.

You deny the link because you don't understand it.

You can't make that link because you skip the totality of the effects of the adaptability of western philosophy. Your thinking is too narrowly focused. You haven't joined all the dots, and some of your facts don't fit your narrative, and like so many today, you use fakery. Your claim about Adam Smith is a prime example.

I've been kind to you Howard.

Two final crushing points.

Please point to another culture, today, that has such a broad based and developing philosophy and which has developed the educational, financial and governmental means to do as exceptionally well as the Americans.

The only culture that comes anywhere their exceptionalism was one that lasted 6ooo years. And they built pyramids.

So the answer to my question is? That's right, none.

the definition of Exceptionalism:

1. the condition of being exceptional; uniqueness.
2. the study of the unique and exceptional.
3. a theory that a nation, region, or political system is exceptional and does not conform to the norm.