What is a "Yankee?"

Yankee was originally a derogatory term applied to Dutch/Hollanders by the British and then later to American Colonists when they started to become a little resistant to British demands on their time and money. Through the years it has evolved to refer to people from New England, the whole northern portion of these United States, and eventually to all U.S. citizens when they are travelling abroad in foreign lands. But the term has of late become to designate certain sociopathic personality types more than the geographic origin of any person.

The Yankee can be recognized by these character flaws:

1. A Yankee holds a strong fanatic belief that he (or she) and his kind (however the Yankee might define that) are superior in all fashions to any other person or people on this planet.
2. Because they are superior to all other people, the Yankee and his kind authorize themselves to exercise dominion over any and all other persons that they come into contact with, whether by accident or intentionally.
3. Because they have authorized themselves to exercise dominion, the Yankee and his kind further authorize themselves to annihilate any and all persons who challenge their authority.

Now holding the belief that your kind of people are superior to other peoples (ethnocentrism) is not that evil. Some forms of misguided patriotism fall under this category. It is when belief, or faith, is combined with criminal physical action against others that the world as a whole starts to suffer. By this definition you can see why the term does apply to Lincoln and his Union Army or how many people from other countries might perceive U.S. citizens as suffering from this condition based on the foreign policy of the Federal Government recently implemented.

As proof that the geographic location of one's birth has little influence over one's political aspirations, there was recently a Texan, the son of a Yankee Carpetbagger and who attended Yankee institutions of higher learning, that held the office of President of these United States. Belonging to the party of Lincoln, he behaved in much the same un-Constitutional form as that earlier despot and used many of that tyrant's criminal actions as legal precedent to excuse his own criminal behavior. He is hoping that history judges him kindly and as we can see from the example of the way that Lincoln is practically worshiped, he will probably get his wish.

Now when I discuss this issue amongst polite company, I am often asked, "If that is what a 'Yankee' is, then what is a 'Damn Yankee'?" I tell them that a "Damn Yankee" is the Yankee that is trying to exercise dominion over you and me. I usually get appreciative nods of agreement in return...

*My response to "Billy Yank" is posted here