> A grand and shallow generalization

In every single developed country leaving a child like that would cause everyone there to be prosecuted by law. I didnt hear any other country where trying to help a kid to find his mother by asking around people in a park could be considered child molestation and force someone who is helping to leave the child just like that. Feel free to provide a counter argument.

> This swerve into pejorative language

Are you contesting that there are incessant fads and hysteria in the US? We are living in a time when US is waging two wars on two different fronts and creating propaganda hysteria for the third war. American payment processors are being pressured to cut service to those who certain American groups dont see compliant with their views. The list of fads and hysterias are so long that it requires an entire topic to list.

> a society that is totally dysfunctional > Ok, now there's no question about it.

A society where people work two jobs and yet live in their car where 99% of people will will never buy a house....

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/homes-for-sale-affordable-housi...

...where people die if they cant pay the hospital, and cant feed their children even while working two jobs...

https://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/13/americas-dirty-little-secret...

...to the extent that the solution they find is escaping from the country...

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/american-dream-leave-most-us-...

...and you are saying that is not a dysfunctional society and pointing out all of these are 'nationalistic'.

> Comments like this, which combine denunciatory rhetoric with a very low information/indignation ratio, are not what Hacker News is for

Tech and tech economy are not exempt from a social collapse. You could make an argument that the collapse has not reached a point at which we should talk about it in every thread, maybe. But you were the one challenged the 'dysfunctional' argument. Delirious hysteria like the one the initial commenter posted is a good sign of collapsing societies. The US is one.