Tbh I've never felt the SV culture (or the HN ethos around here) is representative of the USA generally. They do say "rugged individualism leads to ragged individuals". My experience of the many USians I know personally is positively humane albeit they are all too easily led and prone to go along to get along in a way that is detrimental to their own interests. I think if they genuinely behaved as frontier rebels (rather than played at it) they wouldn't tolerate Trump, Musk, Vance an the like for even a few seconds.