# How and/or where do US citizens learn that the USA is the best country in the world etc? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 26, 2026, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-or-where-do-us-citizens-learn-that-the-usa-is-the-best-country-in-the-world-etc/1031943 "2026-07-26T22:32:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2026, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-or-where-do-us-citizens-learn-that-the-usa-is-the-best-country-in-the-world-etc/1031943/122 "2026-08-03T06:39:57Z")
> [@Gordon\_G](#): > > The USA helped spread democracy This is absolutely a myth. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2026, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-or-where-do-us-citizens-learn-that-the-usa-is-the-best-country-in-the-world-etc/1031943/123 "2026-08-03T08:04:19Z")
How can you say that when the USA supported great democrats like Augusto Pinochet, Fulgencio Batista, and Saddam Hussein? Among many others. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2026, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-or-where-do-us-citizens-learn-that-the-usa-is-the-best-country-in-the-world-etc/1031943/124 "2026-08-03T13:07:16Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > This is absolutely a myth. This is an example of the indoctrination that I was talking about. Americans have been taught the exact opposite of what is true and they aggressively believe it. Not only did America not spread democracy, we undermined, many, many times. America spread crony capitalism under the guise of spreading democracy. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2026, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-or-where-do-us-citizens-learn-that-the-usa-is-the-best-country-in-the-world-etc/1031943/125 "2026-08-03T13:21:56Z")
It was my experience growing up, at least, that it is the pervasive attitude in our public school system and what you hear in political speeches. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2026, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-or-where-do-us-citizens-learn-that-the-usa-is-the-best-country-in-the-world-etc/1031943/126 "2026-08-03T13:30:56Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > > [@Gordon\_G](#): > > > > The USA helped spread democracy > > This is absolutely a myth. This is a myth that i _was_ taught. The Marshall Plan was the exemplar presented to us. That is one of the things i resented about Reagan, he disabused me if the notion that America spread Democrat abroad. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2026, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-or-where-do-us-citizens-learn-that-the-usa-is-the-best-country-in-the-world-etc/1031943/127 "2026-08-03T14:25:55Z")
Exactly, we’re taught that America spreads democracy; that America is about freedom, and that America is the land of the immigrant. When in fact, we have overthrown several democratically elected governments; we are an authoritarian state in which police regularly kill unarmed citizens; and our masked secret police are carrying out a series of pogroms against immigrants. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2026, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-or-where-do-us-citizens-learn-that-the-usa-is-the-best-country-in-the-world-etc/1031943/128 "2026-08-03T14:36:14Z")
You’re surely right, but a little sense of timing and history is relevant too. The masked secret police started last year. The large scale killing of random civilians got going in the 1980s. The overthrowing dates from the 1940s. Those of us indoctrinated as kids in the 1960s had a very different reality to compare to than do little kids being indoctrinated during the current criminal regime. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2026, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-or-where-do-us-citizens-learn-that-the-usa-is-the-best-country-in-the-world-etc/1031943/129 "2026-08-03T14:43:43Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > The Marshall Plan was the exemplar presented to us. The Marshall Plan went to countries who were _already_ democracies (well, West Germany was a democracy _again_, I suppose, if one were to be pedantic). So even then it was a poor example. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2026, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-or-where-do-us-citizens-learn-that-the-usa-is-the-best-country-in-the-world-etc/1031943/130 "2026-08-03T15:10:18Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > The masked secret police started last year. The large scale killing of random civilians got going in the 1980s. The US killed First Nation civilians early and often. That had pretty much stopped by the time we were kids, because the remaining people had either been confined to “reservations” or assimilated. The US has lynched Black civilians since the end of the civil war. (And enslaved them prior to that, of course.) I don’t think the frequency of the current “random killings” is any higher than the historical rate of lynchings. It’s just that we had an interval when things were getting better. And many of us grew up during that time. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2026, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-or-where-do-us-citizens-learn-that-the-usa-is-the-best-country-in-the-world-etc/1031943/131 "2026-08-03T15:28:40Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > The masked secret police started last year. The large scale killing of random civilians got going in the 1980s. The overthrowing dates from the 1940s. One, I think you have a very rosy idea of what the police were up to before the advent of video cameras. Two, the Klan ran wild in the south once reconstruction was ended. Also, remember events like Tulsa where Black neighborhoods were burnt to the ground with support from the authorities. What’s changed is that some voices are breaking through the indoctrination, which is why we elected an insane fascist gameshow host. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2026, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-or-where-do-us-citizens-learn-that-the-usa-is-the-best-country-in-the-world-etc/1031943/132 "2026-08-03T18:44:57Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > The Marshall Plan went to countries who were _already_ democracies (well, West Germany was a democracy _again_, I suppose, if one were to be pedantic). Italy? Austria? Turkey is debatable, it had a one party system until after WW2, and yeah Germany had just stopped being a Dictatorship. > [@madmonk28](#): > > Two, the Klan ran wild in the south once reconstruction was ended. Mostly _during_ Reconstruction, the Klan was suppressed in the 1870s by the [Ku Klux Klan Act - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan_Act) > [@madmonk28](#): > > Also, remember events like Tulsa where Black neighborhoods were burnt to the ground with support from the authorities. Remember, the thread is about kids being taught the USA is the best country, Not many people who were kids in the 1920s are alive today, and no one from the reconstruction era. And sure, the USA has had many issues in the past- but it is not alone in that. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2026, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-or-where-do-us-citizens-learn-that-the-usa-is-the-best-country-in-the-world-etc/1031943/133 "2026-08-03T19:17:33Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Remember, the thread is about kids being taught the USA is the best country, Not many people who were kids in the 1920s are alive today, and no one from the reconstruction era. Then why are you talking about the Marshal Plan? This thread is about why and how Americans are indoctrinated with the idea that America is the best country and a lot of posters are proving that they are indoctrinated. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2026, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-or-where-do-us-citizens-learn-that-the-usa-is-the-best-country-in-the-world-etc/1031943/134 "2026-08-03T19:29:01Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > And sure, the USA has had many issues in the past- but it is not alone in that. When someone says this, I’m not sure how to take it. It strikes me as dismissive: if everybody has issues, then you can just factor them out, and not consider them. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2026, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-or-where-do-us-citizens-learn-that-the-usa-is-the-best-country-in-the-world-etc/1031943/135 "2026-08-04T03:11:34Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > Then why are you talking about the Marshal Plan? I replied to make a correction . ---
**Author:** ![Gordon\_G](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3da27b/32.png) [@Gordon\_G](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gordon_G)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2026, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-or-where-do-us-citizens-learn-that-the-usa-is-the-best-country-in-the-world-etc/1031943/136 "2026-08-04T08:32:10Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > > [@Gordon\_G](#): > > > > The USA helped spread democracy > > This is absolutely a myth. Conditions change over time and place and circumstance. Black and white are joined by shades of gray. Eisenhower presided over coup in Iran (BAD) but diminished colonial power in Suez crisis (GOOD). Plenty examples of good, bad and shades of gray. BUT it is a fact that USA has often been – _ **whether deserved or not** _ – a symbol of liberty and democracy and sheer goodness, both within the USA and in the eyes of foreigners. Google for yourself if you need examples. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2026, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-or-where-do-us-citizens-learn-that-the-usa-is-the-best-country-in-the-world-etc/1031943/137 "2026-08-04T09:05:47Z")
> [@Gordon\_G](#): > > diminished colonial power in Suez crisis (GOOD). In service of Nasser, himself hardly a bastion of democracy - not quite so unalloyed a good. > [@Gordon\_G](#): > > BUT it is a fact that USA has often been – _ **whether deserved or not** _ – a symbol of liberty and democracy and sheer goodness _Often_, sure. Not so much in my country but then, you know, our greatest leader _was_ shopped by the CIA… But all you’re saying to me is “the myth exists”, which I’m not disagreeing with. It’s the _actual_ helping part the US has historically sucked at. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2026, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-or-where-do-us-citizens-learn-that-the-usa-is-the-best-country-in-the-world-etc/1031943/138 "2026-08-04T10:42:18Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > Then why are you talking about the Marshal Plan? This thread is about why and how Americans are indoctrinated with the idea that America is the best country and a lot of posters are proving that they are indoctrinated. I think i brought it up, as something i was taught was an example of America “spreading democracy”. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2026, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-or-where-do-us-citizens-learn-that-the-usa-is-the-best-country-in-the-world-etc/1031943/139 "2026-08-04T10:47:29Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > I think i brought it up, as something i was taught was an example of America “spreading democracy”. To be a bit balanced about this, I don’t think the project was really ever about going around establishing new democracies from whole cloth, though that’s how it was presented. It was more about preventing the USSR from doing what it did in Eastern Europe, creating satellite communist dictatorships. This project would have been a lot more noble if it did indeed involve the US setting up real democracies and then leaving them alone. But purely in terms of driving the USSR out of wherever it was trying to export its own misery and dysfunction, this was entirely the right thing to do, it’s a necessary precursor for democracy, and the world would be better if we did more of it. Russia is objectively a trash country that ruins every country it touches in service of spreading its own hegemony, it leaves behind only dictatorships, kleptocracies, or simply piles of rubble where thriving communities had been. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2026, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-or-where-do-us-citizens-learn-that-the-usa-is-the-best-country-in-the-world-etc/1031943/140 "2026-08-04T11:32:18Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > I think i brought it up, as something i was taught was an example of America “spreading democracy”. I know, but he said that the Tulsa massacre wasn’t relevant since it happened a long time ago, but then he brought up the Marshall Plan in the same post. Part of the indoctrination of Americans is to celebrate the good and pretend the bad is ancient history and not relevant. I would love for someone to explain when this best nation era was for America. It’s the same question I have for MAGA: when is this greatness to which we are to return? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2026, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-or-where-do-us-citizens-learn-that-the-usa-is-the-best-country-in-the-world-etc/1031943/141 "2026-08-04T18:33:03Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > I know, but he said that the Tulsa massacre wasn’t relevant since it happened a long time ago, but then he brought up the Marshall Plan in the same post. Was not relevant for THIS Thread. It can be quite relevant. As for the Marshal Plan, I was just correctiing a post. > [@madmonk28](#): > > I would love for someone to explain when this best nation era was for America. 1950s > [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > I would phrase it as… if we’re to say there was a period when the US was mostly the “best” across the board, it would be the post WW2 decades when it was the last big country with a functioning economy, whose industrial capacity had been massively ramped up during the war, and it used this headstart to terrific effect. > > And all of these conditions, combined with some Cold War propaganda, influenced the widespread believe that the US really was “the best”, whatever that means. In a few dimensions, there really was American exceptionalism, some of which persists to this day. Again, it would be odd if this weren’t the case, given some of the unearned advantages of resources, geography, and history that the US has enjoyed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-or-where-do-us-citizens-learn-that-the-usa-is-the-best-country-in-the-world-etc/1031943.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-and-or-where-do-us-citizens-learn-that-the-usa-is-the-best-country-in-the-world-etc/1031943.md?page=8)