Comment by Bayart

You're not that special. While the American special snowflake syndrome has been useful in giving its citizens a sense of purpose, freeing them of apprehension and bringing it where it is, it's ultimately baseless. Things get dangerous when people start believing in their own bullshit. The same is true for Europeans as well. There's a lot of navel gazing going on and I'm very annoyed at European leaders sweeping increasing authoritarian behaviour under the rug or proclaiming with great confidence, as did von der Leyen, that we don't have oligarchs.