This line of thinking can all be traced back down to American exceptionalism. We're raised to depend only on ourselves. We friendly to our neighbors, at least t

This line of thinking can all be traced back down to American exceptionalism. We're raised to depend only on ourselves. We friendly to our neighbors, at least the ones we can see from the edge of our property line. But everyone else? Fuck 'em. This failure in community building is prevalent throughout American society, and we now have our current hyper-plutocracy as a result. It's how the country was built. You went off with your wife and 2 kids in a wagon to go claim a piece of land the federal government gave you. It was massive, and there might not always be neighbors (or even a community) to help you out. The entities that grew and acquired power weren't the weak state governments, but nascent corporations. Not saying it's good or bad, it's just how America was.