this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2025
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[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If you ignore all the folk tales about people one upping the devil or the local equivalent... everywhere, yes, it's a uniquely American trait.

[–] spankmonkey 28 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Don't those involve creative approaches and tricking or otherwise outsmarting the devil or local equivalent?

This is just Johnny being better than the devil and having a massive ego about it. That specific situation tends to be punished.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Johnny having a massive ego about it is a great sin of Pride, and so the devil ends up getting his soul anyway.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 hours ago

What are you even talking about? That's not reflected in the lyrics of the song at all and a single sin doesn't condemn someone to hell.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's not pride if you give fair warning that you just actually are that good. The devil was the boastful one challenging someone and not being able to back it up

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The boy said, "My name's Johnny and it might be a sin
But I'm gon' take your bet and you're gonna regret
I'm the best there's ever been"

He's boasting about it before, and gloating about it after. But the devil is expected to sin, so it doesn't matter. Johnny on the other hand knows he's being boastful, and goes and does it anyway.

[–] CoCo_Goldstein 2 points 3 hours ago

As a professional baseball(?) player once said, "It's not bragging if you can do it."