As near as I can tell, the official definition of Rugged American Individualism requires that it's practitioner be a healthy white male with a net worth of more than $20,000. You can recognize one of these Rugged Individuals due to the products they consume, the (large) vehicles they drive. their devotion to their football team, and their reluctance to pay taxes for anything other than roads and weaponry.
As such the systematic dismantling of our policies to prevent torture and hold torturers accountable; our eager rush into aggressive war and our continuing efforts to thwart prosecution of our own war criminals is perfectly comprehensible in the defense of the Rugged Individualist Lifestyle.
I am sorry that I did not adequately communicate the biting sarcasm that I habitually apply to our political discourse, or the barely repressed anger that I feel in my forced complicity in the crimes of America. In such light I think that your inability to see the swiftian satire I intended to lighten the last line of my last post is perfectly comprehensible.
I understand the point that you're trying to make, but you're misrepresenting things. American culture is decidedly more individualistic than Europe's, but its unfair to characterize us as "not in it together", either as a whole or when referring to the libertarian argument that you're attempting to refute. There's no honor in being forced to watch out for your neighbor, and in the long run, it creates problems of moral hazard where you expect that someone should be taking care of whatever problem you have at the moment.
This country (my country) openly condones torture, the bombing of civilian populations, extrajudicial imprisonment and the murder of political dissidents; all in the name of Individual Liberty.
This is where you really lost me. Those things have not been done in the name or spirit of individual liberty. Quite the opposite: they represent an egregious breach of the individual liberties we're entitled to under the Constitution. Not sure how you managed to twist this issue up to be an example in your mind of the supposed dangers of individual liberty.
...and more surprising that we aren't busy legalizing the hunting of the homeless and the use of the indigent as pet food.
Thanks for making my point about over-the-top rhetoric. Have you been to Europe, by the way? I lived there for years, and they've got their own set of problems, I assure you.