There are two different versions of American nationalism.
Version 1: Tech is evil and part of a woke conspiracy to radicalize America. We need to go back to strong old industries like coal, steel, and autos that employ lots of blue-collar workers. We need to revive the Rust Belt. EVs are a fad. Brick-and-mortar stores are better than Amazon. Silicon Valley is full of immigrants from non-white countries. The Bay Area doesn’t look like America anymore.
Version 2: China is our biggest enemy. The battles of the 21st century will depend on who controls AI, which will impact the battle for military superiority. We will need to import far more highly skilled engineers from places like India and China. This will strengthen America and weaken China. Greater San Francisco is by far our most important city. It’s where the smartest people are and where the future of AI will be decided.
I’m no expert on artificial intelligence, but people much smarter than me argue: Military superiority The fate of the world in the 21st century will depend on which country achieves AGI first.
It seems to me that there are two types of American nationalism: one might call “nostalgic nationalism” – a yearning to recreate the America of the 1950s, and the other might call “future-oriented nationalism” – focused on winning the race to control AI and dominate the world.
I’m not at all sure that what I’m calling future-oriented nationalism is really nationalism at all. In that case, it might make more sense to think of a single nationalism with internal contradictions. Nostalgic nationalism is real, but full of internal contradictions. Its adherents want to go back to the 1950s, but at the same time they want to confront the threat of a rising China. Can we do both?
P.S.: Neither of these versions of nationalism reflects my views.
