Sounds like you are projecting your own insecurities honestly.

I do. It’s a big country so maybe your corner of it is as you describe. I have personally lived in 5 different states and visited most of the rest and never encountered anything like what you describe.

Much like all over the world there are lots of bigoted idiots, but they are very much the tiny minority of Americans and they do not represent this country or its values.

If this country is so terrible why do we struggle to keep people from coming here to live illegally, or “undocumented” if you prefer that term?

Years of poor education and dark money being invested in the system. People like Peter Thiel who love America already have their plans to escape to New Zealand. We are one of the only developed countries where we still argue about teaching evolution AND biblical myths like Afghanistan. We could have been one of the best countries in the world. If we had stayed honest and hardworking.

The 'unsafe feeling' you have is a function of bigotry and misinformation.

Small town America is very safe.

If you take away the 50 most violent 'urban hot zones' in the US, national crime rates actually start to look like something a bit more normal.

Suburbs, exurbs, small towns and rural areas are about the same level of gun violence, which is less than urban areas, that said, the more 'remote' people are, the more likely they are to use guns to commit suicide.

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1448529/