Portugal is pretty devoutly Catholic.

It’s a cultural problem.

That means nothing as I assume the GP was alluding to Puritan values instead of Catholic ones.

Vladimir wants to paint a specific picture, dig?

That’s precisely what I meant. Both have religion in spades - but only one has a toxic culture around it. It probably helps that Portugal was a neighbour to religious lunatics for much of its existence, and even had a few deeply unpopular monarchs who invited the inquisition in. It’s still there in the cultural memory - they take god seriously, but the idea of religious persecution and the involvement of church in state is pretty much anathema to the average Portuguese.

I think he meant evangelicals who push "personal responsibility" and other similar values.

I suspect their welfare state is/was still better than the US's though.

Honestly, I agree. I think that the American experiment is failing. The school shootings, the insane death toll from reckless driving, the drugs - people are desperate and disconnected.

Religion and civic groups are basically gone, with no replacement. We're in these weird atomized suburban bubbles. Seems bad.