You are absolutely right - it's the elephant in the room, that no one sees.

In the US, because it is such an interwoven piece of society, and so casual, there was a term for the movement towards this, after Eisenhower's failed attempt to abort the movement...they called it friendly fascism, I forget who coined the term, but it is apt, and Americans are by and large a friendly lot, in between episodes of violence, either state-sponsored (as in Iraq) or state-sanctioned (as in gun violence on the streets of the US).

In the EU, because people just don't want to believe what the US has become.

Fai de bèn a Bertrand, te lou rendra en cagant