I'm wondering a little bit if the American focus on personal responsibility is not only a capitalist undermining of systemic thinking but also might be a way to pretend a comforting level of control.
That is, if you accept that, I don't know, cancer or obesity or dying in a car accident are at least partially caused by large systemic forces, that implies that it could happen to you. Whereas, if these things can be explained by personal failures, then one can simply Act in the Correct Manner and avoid anything bad ever happening.
Being back here in the US, everything is covered in warnings on how to avoid being injured or harmed. Playgrounds, restaurants, even frisbees have warnings on them about things that might happen to you. In Sweden there's few warnings and yet I feel much safer - because the decisions about safety are enforced at a much higher level, and not left up to me making good decisions in the face of companies trying to get one over on me. The combination of the EU and the Swedish government protect me from a lot of the worst of it.
I remember almost dying on a trip to Rotorua, New Zealand as a teen and the tour guide was unspeakably dumbfounded when after he berated us for the stupid decision we made we responded with "well, if it's so unsafe why are their no signs!" he said something along the lines of "because this isn't America" before walking off the job lol
Probably one of the first times I was like "oh America is a strange country huh"
