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Comment by whatshisface | Hacker News Reader

From Wikipedia,

>Manifest destiny was a widely held belief in the 19th century United States that its settlers were destined to expand across North America.

The average American does not think that America should expand any further throughout the world, nor do they think that America has an irresistible duty to remake the world in its image. The theme of "the special virtues of the American people and their institutions" is only one part of the definition of manifest destiny.

Also, if you've ever read an HN thread on public mass transit, I think there is evidence against the claim that Americans think that all of their institutions are the best in the world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifest_destiny

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A thread on HN is a far cry from what a typical American thinks. America doesn’t need to take over other nations in the parochial sense. Rather the number of bases the US has established throughout the world accomplish manifest destiny in a modern fashion. No other country has or has ever had this level or scale of military deployment.

I didn't really want to bash on the US too hard but yeah. America has over five hundred overseas military bases. To say no other country even comes close is an understatement.

I'm not even saying the US overseas forces are bad. They've been misused, yes, but I don't want to argue about that - it's complicated. To disclaim America's outsize global ambitions, however - for whatever purpose - is just laughable.

The American government may have some “outsize global ambitions” however the American people don’t want any global expansion.

In fact I hear more about Cascadia or Texas seceding than I do about the USA adding new states or territories.

That has nothing to do with manifest destiny or even the average American. People are almost completely unaware of how many bases we have abroad, etc.

You are trying to paint a portrait of Americans in general that is flagrantly false.

I didn’t think I was bashing or portraying a negative statement, rather shedding light on an objective truth. I can understand that Americans don’t know much at all about those bases. But they do know how much their military is costing (in broad terms) and are happy to continue supporting that.

Much evidence points to the sentiment that the US behaves like a modern-day Rome and has attempted (or is attempting) to achieve “Pax Americana” globally. Again, not necessarily a bad concept as the world could always use more stability.

> But they do know how much their military is costing (in broad terms) and are happy to continue supporting that.

Many people explicitly hate this and want to see money diverted from that to stuff like education, etc.

Americans aren't one singular unit that agree on issues, especially things like foreign policy.

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