Arnold Farr, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Kentucky, will address how both the right and the left have supported a false narrative about American identity. This narrative has been used in different ways by the two groups, but nevertheless, has led us to our present political and social situation. Some features of this narrative include American exceptionalism, denial about our violent origins, the obsession with comfort, the lack of action driven by a real progressive agenda and the reduction of the political to mere voting.