I moved from outside into the West and I’m inclined to agree with you. It feels different here. There’s much more trust, even when Westerners mock their institutions, there is a higher baseline and more implied trust.
The thing is that it’s easy to voice an opinion. And you can be confident that the institutions will endure even if you weaken them, which provides a safety net for populists who have incentives to use corrosive language and attitudes for electoral reasons without fearing a complete breakdown of the state or society.
We’ve seen this countless times. However upset people are about Medicare and public welfare, they still want to get some support when they need.
It is a factor for instability in the long term, but it is an unavoidable cost of having free speech. Ideally, it would be fought against with a good public education system.
I'd like to see a new Constitution with a Bill of Responsibilities, one of them being to know how to live without certain modern necessities for proscribed periods of time.
Jury Duty, but a couple Weeks a Year of Camping in the Wilderness with your Family.
