Reply #28: "Getting away with it" is deep in the American psyche

[PurityOfEssence]

We are a country of people who escaped things, and our emotional identity, bad and good, is underpinned by this attitude. This is why get rich quick schemes are so prevalent, this is why private property and accumulation are so sacred and it's responsible for much of what we are.

The meanness is justified to many because "these people attacked us", even though they had nothing to do with 9-11 and quite the opposite is true.

It's not just Americans, it's human nature. The dark and ugly parts of human nature are why laws and governments were invented: to protect us from other human beings.

At least there are good traits to the species, but the bad can't be denied. All one has to see is the historical pattern of marginalized groups when they've found a place to hold sway: the Puritans were guilty of religious persecution that was as bad as anything they'd suffered, and it didn't take long to get started.

If you look at how many successful crimes have been solved throughout history, it was because of bragging by the criminals; this is from a need to crow about it. It's all a human need to stand out from the crowd, be special and get away with it. When one starts from a point of accepting that one is superior to certain kinds of people, there will always be some (losers among their own kind) who will revel in being of the master race and do things like this. Strip away the rhetoric of Americans being good and noble, and you get to the real statement: we're better, and deserve to do as we please.