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It doesn’t have to have an agreed upon meaning. My point is its not inherently bad to think something is anti-American.

In fact, treating the very idea of judging something as “anti-American” as inherently illegitimate is quite literally anti-American. Its saying Americans shouldn’t be allowed to have opinions about what their country stands for.

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Fundamentally I agree. But my point is that while it isnt inherently bad to think of something as anti-American, it is bad when politicians use that terminology to create divides and further their agendas. My statement about Islam being anti-American is just one example.

Honestly I think because there is no agreed upon meaning, the term "anti-American" is meaningless and means whatever the speaker/listener wants it to mean, and is just used to score political points.

"Enemy of the people" is also not inherently illegitimate - I mean, the people can surely have enemies, right?

But words and phrases like that have a history of actual use and the resulting connotations.

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