“Fake news existed long before Donald Trump…. What is ironic
is that fake news has indeed been the only news disseminated by the
rulers of U.S. empire.”—From American Exceptionalism and
American Innocence
According to Robert Sirvent and Danny Haiphong, Americans have been
exposed to fake news throughout our history—news that slavery is a
thing of the past, that we don’t live on stolen land, that wars are
fought to spread freedom and democracy, that a rising tide lifts all
boats, that prisons keep us safe, and that the police serve and
protect.
Thus, the only
“news” ever reported by various channels of U.S. empire is the
news of American exceptionalism and
American innocence. And, as this book will hopefully show,
it’s all fake.
Did the U.S. really
“save the world” in World War II? Should black athletes stop
protesting and show more gratitude for what America has done for
them? Are wars fought to spread freedom and democracy? Or is this all
fake news?
American
Exceptionalism and American Innocence examines the stories we’re
told that lead us to think that the U.S. is a force for good in the
world, regardless of slavery, the genocide of indigenous people, and
the more than a century’s worth of imperialist war that the U.S.
has wrought on the planet.
Sirvent and Haiphong
detail just what Captain America’s shield tells us about the
pretensions of U.S. foreign policy, how Angelina Jolie and Bill Gates
engage in humanitarian imperialism, and why the Broadway musical
Hamilton is a monument to white supremacy.