Interesting take, I like it and haven’t considered the impact of regulations on transparency.

I think it’s a natural human impulse to look at your neighbors or bordering groups and say, “ Thank God we’re not like THEM!”. Growing up in MS, where there are plenty of crazies, I remember us thinking “At least we aren’t as backwards as Alabama!”. Yeah, I bet anyone outside of MS can see the irony there. But like you say, this shit happens anywhere there are human beings.

I found it quite interesting when I read David Graeber and David Wengrow’s “The Dawn of Everything…” where they provided historical evidence of this aspect of human nature. Their theory stated that cultures are shaped just as much by comparing and contrasting OUR culture as opposed to THEIR culture. It seems humans can’t help but do that.