Your faith in my fellow citizens’ capacity for self-reflection is commendable. Absolutely misplaced, but it is is still nice of you to think we’re capable of such things as a society.

The unfortunate situation is that the cult of American Exceptionalism combined with the hypocrisy and corruption regularly on display from our government abroad and our politicians at home, the USA should barely be considered a society. We certainly don’t have a culture unless you count worshipping the accumulation of wealth and goods.