@mike Of course norms are absolutely influenced by laws. In fact, the growing understanding of the corruption of the law in the US over the last 40 years is why MAGA (or any right-wing populism) even exists.

We are only somewhat better than the US on this. I've come to believe that our poorer productivity (absolute and relative change) compared to the US goes hand-in-hand with us being more egalitarian, more collective-oriented, and less individualistic a culture than the US.

@mike Yes!

I realized just this year that norms trump laws!
(pun originally not intended but turn out to be appropriate)

I would look at strong US constitution defenders (like 1A advocates like Mike Masnick (Techdirt)) & think perhaps they had a point in contrast to Canada with respect to our "order and good governance" attitude and our anti-hate-speech laws being possible under our Constitution's free speech provisions.

I would think theirs was superior. But our norms are better and won out.

@mike The return to gunboat diplomacy and the rule of might-makes-right shows the rule of law of our lifetime as somewhat the aberration in history, not the inevitable social evolution I thought it was.

@mike I'm perhaps only /marginally/ better than average at tempering my emotions and being aware of my own cognitive biases so like you I find myself questioning the reality of my fears, but I have also come to the conclusion that the picture I had of the world having grown up when I did (b. 1968) was terribly naive when it came to the rule of law both at the individual level and the international level.

Self restraint and the rule of law was never not precarious, even in our lifetime.

@vkc @404mediaco
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