There are many things. First, Florida is odd. Dave Barry made his career out of odd things happening in Miami.
Perhaps more accurately, the us has a large population. It's roughly the same size as all of western europe. With 350 million independent agents running around, you'll get some funky edge cases.
And C, I think everyone is susceptible to abuse of power. There are a million stories of HOA (home owner associations) making crazy complicated rules because of smart yet bored homebodies with nothing better to do.
The U.S. has certain freedoms, like self defense, that you don't see in the U.K. Freedom of speech is pretty cool, but you get these weird effects where things advertised as "news" aren't actually required to tell the truth. So it's not all sunshine and lollypops.
Classic puritanism tried to take comfort knowing that people not acting in a godly way would just go to hell when they died. The U.S. has a long tradition of everyone knowing everyone else's business. And being judgmental of it. Sometimes echoes of that ring down through the ages and we get weird laws. We get the moral imperatives, but can't really rely on bad parents going to hell, so we get kind of crazy.
You make some good points, I'm definitely not hating on the US because I've lived there on for a number of years on a couple of occasions and I love the place. I'd love to actually settle there one day.
I suppose with a nation as big as the US and the media presence there, it would probably be much more difficult to hide such stories as it would in various European nations.
Perhaps more accurately, the us has a large population. It's roughly the same size as all of western europe. With 350 million independent agents running around, you'll get some funky edge cases.
And C, I think everyone is susceptible to abuse of power. There are a million stories of HOA (home owner associations) making crazy complicated rules because of smart yet bored homebodies with nothing better to do.
The U.S. has certain freedoms, like self defense, that you don't see in the U.K. Freedom of speech is pretty cool, but you get these weird effects where things advertised as "news" aren't actually required to tell the truth. So it's not all sunshine and lollypops.
Classic puritanism tried to take comfort knowing that people not acting in a godly way would just go to hell when they died. The U.S. has a long tradition of everyone knowing everyone else's business. And being judgmental of it. Sometimes echoes of that ring down through the ages and we get weird laws. We get the moral imperatives, but can't really rely on bad parents going to hell, so we get kind of crazy.