One clarification if I may. I limited my remarks to the US, and Americans, and American society, because I have lived my whole life in the US and I have been exposed to an exceedingly great amount of American television, newspapers, magazines, etc. Except for a visit to Canada with my parents when I was a kid, I have never visited another country, much less had any great exposure to one. Thus my experience of American society was infinitely greater than my experience of any other society. For instance, I have absolutely no context upon which to make any speculation as to the people of Belgium, their television, their economic policies, their government, their religious and social institutions, their crime rate, their divorce rate. (In fact, from what I have been able to determine, they all play Alembic basses and are really nice folks.) Thus, I limited my remarks to American society; it was the only one I had any experience with.
