I'm confused here. You said something that was on the surface absurd, got downvoted on it, which I would assume would at least cause you to re-examine your original premises, and then came back doubling down on your original statement, which I interpret as dismissal of the downvotes as just hive mind thinking about a subject they're very clearly wrong about. So, do you honestly actually believe that most Americans are more concerned with copyrights than torture? And if so, what leads you to this conclusion?
This question is not meant to be hostile, I am not American so I have no horse in this race, I just want to understand where you're coming from.
I'm not saraid216, nor American, but I believe that I find it very difficult to find (sampling from primarily Canadians and Americans) people who get emotionally heated about other people being tortured, and relatively easy to find people who get emotionally heated about copyright violation (usually against themselves or against someone they would like to identify with). I would say that I find the latter group between 10x and 100x more common in my life than the former.
It's even harder to find someone who will actually lift a finger to do anything about strangers being tortured, and harder still to find someone who will do more than write an angry comment online (for example, I will not do more than write comments online).
Although I found saraid216's comment smug, dismissive, and non-contributing, as far as I can tell it was essentially true.
Interesting perspective, I agree with your observations, but I don't know if it's really a manifestation of those people not caring about torture so much as it seems like a problem with which they do not have direct experience and thus do not have the emotional immediacy involved with something that more directly affects them.
For example, I might find my neighbour's loud music at three in the morning evokes more of an emotional response than the spanish inquisition, but that doesn't actually imply I think that my neighbour's loud music at three in the morning is really more important or severe than the spanish inquisition.
This question is not meant to be hostile, I am not American so I have no horse in this race, I just want to understand where you're coming from.