Source: The Atlantic .
As far back as 2010, I wrote about being surprised to find that "tolerance" had become a dirty word in American political discourse ("Tolerance Is Not A Four-Letter Word"). Over time, I noticed that other seemingly innocuous words had become controversial, too (this from 2017: "Now Kindness is a Dirty Word, Too"). What was going on, I wondered. Recently, I read the best analysis of what was behind it all. It's in an article in the July, 2026, issue of "The Atlantic" by a deputy executive editor, Yoni Applebaum ("How America Gave Up on its own History").
Yoni Applebaum reports on an independent commission formed in 2019 to explore whether Americans could agree on a common narrative about their nation's history and identity.
An independent commission had spent the previous year contemplating the dismal state of American democracy. In dozens of focus groups that it had convened around the country, participants from across the political spectrum had been quick to identify sources of division—but requests to name the things that united them as Americans were generally met with nervous laughter. The commissioners themselves were convinced that the country needed a shared narrative, but were at odds with one another as to what it should be. And so they called in a handful of outsiders, myself among them, to help inject some fresh thinking into how to find one. The topic was so fraught that we all agreed, before attending, not to be quoted by name.
Our first exercise, the facilitator explained, was intended to build trust—listing words or concepts that all Americans could endorse, even if our definitions might vary. He uncapped his marker and looked around expectantly. I sat there, surrounded by an uncomfortable silence, searching for a word so anodyne that no one could possibly object...
"Patriotism," I volunteered.
I had rolled a live grenade into the center of the room. One participant flinched, as if struck. Suddenly, everyone was talking at once, voices and tempers rising. One woman said the word made her feel excluded. Another said it connoted violence and racism. Still another participant was offended that anyone could be offended by the word. The facilitator declined to write patriotism on the easel. As the quarreling continued, I sat back, stunned. All of the people in the room had come here for the specific purpose of finding a common narrative. What hope did that project have if they could not even agree—each in their own way—on loving the country they were trying to save?
Source: The Atlantic.
It seems "patriotism" can be added to the list of newly controversial terms that I had been assembling over the previous decade. Most of the time, it was the Right that was offended. In this case, it was the Left. Applebaum offers an explanation. Words that once seemed politically neutral have become proxies for competing visions of America's past and future. They carry connotations way beyond their dictionary denotations.
Applebaum suggests that some of the Right's current reaction could be a predictable response to the Left's decades-long scholarship examining "the many ways in which America has fallen short of its ideals." Applebaum says, "Conservatives frequently warn that the close study of the darkest chapters of our past will erode any sense of patriotism." It's not the words themselves as much as the partisan visions of American history they represent. If so, maybe this will be the last time I'll have to wonder why certain words I consider noncontroversial draw strong objections from many people on the Right.
The entire article is well worth reading. There's much more food for thought than I've covered here. I don't think I'd be revealing any spoilers if I said that Applebaum doesn't claim to have found a simple remedy for the plight America finds itself in. Still, Applebaum offers a compelling explanation for the phenomenon. Maybe that's progress. Ironically, "progress" is a dirty word to some, too.
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