Why America is the World’s Most Uniquely Cruel Society

Or, How Punching Down Became a Way of Life

Image Credit: Scot Alderman

In this essay, I want to share with you a tiny theory of what it means to be American. It is up to you to judge, as ever, whether it carries any weight. All that I will say is that when I look around, it explains, a little, what I see.

Any theory of being American must explain one salient and striking fact: cruelty. America is …