America isn’t individualist, it is selfishist. True individualism would value the individual as a concept, and therefore value the individual in *every* person. Not just the one individual whose head you happen to inhabit.

True individualism would recognize that “none of us are free until all of us are free.” Not as a cutesy romantic fantasy, but as literal, lived reality.

True individualism would not allow anyone to die from treatable illness. It would not allow wealth to accumulate in the hands of a few while every other individual becomes poor. True individualism would abhor manipulative behavior instead of building an entire economy around it.

True individualism would allow you to disassociate freely from any group that was harming you, without negative repercussions. Whether that group be your family of origin, your religion, your place of work, or anything else.

I don’t personally find the individualist/collectivist spectrum to be useful, because we are always simultaneously individuals and many overlapping collectives. The closest description I’ve found to how I see things is this, what I clumsily call “true individualism.”

If we value ourselves, and also the individual in others, it becomes clearer how to address conflict and manage how we use our power. We do not become a hive, and we are also not in competition. There is instead a constant, ever-changing, dynamic collaboration.