This claim seems to me increasingly psychotic. „What you see before you is not reality: believe what I tell you of the myths I grew up with, not the empirical evidence you see before you.“
I have heard the line given as justification for Americans abroad to demonstrate opposition to US actions. It’s been displayed in front of installations where sick children are imprisoned in cages.
- This [invasion and occupation] is not who we are.
- This [wholesale slaughter of civilians from the air] is not what America is about.
- This [violation of the rule of law in order to hinder revelation of government crime] is not America.
When I see photographs of a handful of white-haired demonstrators holding hand-lettered placards in the cold outside a base where thousands of sturdy young American military men and women tend million dollar equipment, or when I stand with other white-haired demonstrators outside the US Embassy, the claim that I, not Richard Grenell, should be accepted as representing America, seems absolutely ludicrous. Claiming that Grenell or Pompeo or some other official doesn’t represent America communicates content about the claimant’s beliefs — in this case delusional — but certainly doesn’t communicate anything of truth value about the United States. It is perhaps mostly a personal apology: „I and a small handful of people do not agree with the actions of my government, actions which are supported either actively or passively by a mass of lazy cowards very intentionally ignorant of their world. I don’t agree with them.“ This seems more a sort of public plea for absolution than an attempt at meaningful political action.
