ewok2remember

Yeah, I've gotta know if this is real.

I don't think shes implying she's safe because of the Gotti connection. She's implying that she's safe because her four sons all have the name and are fine, so she will be too.

Hi Dr. Bontrager, and thank you for the AMA. I'm not sure if you're familiar with it, but I read Godfrey Hodgson's The Myth of American Exceptionalism as part of my final paper written during undergrad. In it, he hits on the many texts and speeches that American culture has taken out of context to feed the narrative that the United States and the citizens therein are exceptional and wholly unique throughout the world.

He first cites Reagan's fondness for John Winthrops' "A Model of Christian Charity" (probably better known as the "city on the hill" sermon) and how Americans have wrongfully assumed Winthrop was breaking away from the British crown but was instead proudly loyal to it. Centuries later, Americans were using that sermon as a point of pride in their perceived exceptional status when it, in reality, had nothing to do with them or the yet-to-be-created United States

Do you know of any other wild misinterpretations or misrepresentations that American culture has used to promote itself while missing the mark like this?

It is what it is. Doesn't make me any less curious.