[ewzimm]

These Americans you've encountered seem especially sensitive to marketing. I haven't encountered anyone in the USA who wasn't skeptical of these kinds of promotions of consumer culture. My own definition of freedom would be the traditional Buddhist idea: freedom from greed, freedom of hatred, and freedom from delusion. All other freedoms are only valuable if they assist in those primary freedoms.

The things you mention people valuing are very counterproductive, and I think that most people in the USA have become aware of that, even if we live in a culture that's full of advertising. I think that in every country, there's an accepted level of surface-level deception that's tolerated publicly but privately criticized. Of course, these days people often publish their private criticisms, so the lines between public and private behavior are blurring.