The very strange thing I’ve found about liberal democracies is not just the amount of people who believe the entire world believes in the value of liberal democracies. It’ the amount of people who believe, for some strange reason, that other countries support the values of liberal democracies even more than liberal democracies themselves.

Hence comments about the U.S. being extremely puritanical, when anyone can look at laws throughout the world and see that the U.S. is more open on most of these issues than the vast majority of countries.

It’s a very strange form of self-loathing. I’ve discussed it with a lot of people from non-Western countries, and they find this behavior extremely confusing.

A lot of this goes back to Rousseau, a philosopher who sees civilization as the root of evil.

He thought of undeveloped places as filled with “noble savages” uncorrupted by the evils of modern society.

This is why many people believe that anti-gay sentiment only exists because of American or European influences.

While it’s true undeveloped counties often have very different sexual ethics, that does not mean humanity’s default is liberal individualism sanctioned by custom and community.