you forgot rampant militarism and staggeringly wide income gaps and a hundred other things that could fill out a litany of what's wrong that stretches from here to eternity. I'm not sure who's eyes you think you're opening here. I mean really. I got news for you tho, Europe ain't a single whit better, just more hypocritical. if you think the Germans, French and the rest aren't every bit as tied into an economic structure based around the exploitation of far-off people and their lands then you're deluding yourself (not to mention Europe's complete failure to integrate, or even try to, its own immigrant underclass). the entire world is a grim piece of work. always has been, like as not always will be, not matter the thin veneer of civilization that we drape over our savagery nowadays. which isn't a reason to give up on it or just passively accept awfulness when you can do something about it. it is a good reason, tho, not to get fixated on the U.S. as being somehow a unique entity in history, as if you toppled it the world would magically become a place of sunshine and happiness and unicorns. China or India or some combination thereof would sit down on the throne and the world would continue on in its grimness.
I reckon this is the your point anyway, the only one you ever really make:
and the truth that my eyes see for themselves, is simply a lot more fucked, on so many different levels including structural and institutional, than most people care to acknowledge.
to present yourself as the lone voice of truth in the wilderness, crying out to bring illumination to the ignorant. which isn't, of course remotely true. and, as usual, is on a topic about which you appear to know next to nothing.
