My pet theory on why a lot of things happen in the US that don't happen elsewhere is one of disposable income.
We have the biggest pile of disposable income (not per capita, but in total) of anywhere in the world. This enables people to sue when something is going on that they don't like, and once you start looking at things through this lens, lots of strange things start to make sense. For starters - a lot of the school-related controversies. Schools cave to many demands because they are afraid of being sued by monied parents, and you can see it with parents on both sides of the political spectrum.
You may also notice if you're in the US, consuming foreign content on Youtube that even non-English content has a tendency to put units in dollars, miles, pounds, etc. There's guides that talk about targeting the US lets you make the big money on Youtube.
And of course, the NIMBYism. People can slow down, raise the costs of or stop megaprojects entirely via flurries of lawsuits.
Money makes things happen or not happen. The town I went to college in was a wealthy town which had banned any kind of large structures to preserve the natural beauty of the town. But then all the wealthy residents got cell phones, and hated the cell coverage. The solution: A multi-million dollar bell tower which towered over the landscape, looking like a grand obelisk (and which tastefully concealed rather a lot of cell tower hardware).