&gt;<i>They&#x27;ve suffered war, laws that declare gender-inequality ( soft words for what those laws actually are, but anyway ), homo-phobic state-politics, etc.</i><p>About war yes, but lots of those people have not &quot;suffered&quot; gender-inequality or homo-phobic state-politics -- In fact those things might be part of what the believe and support themselves.<p>Those things are part of their culture -- and grassroots -- not stuff that some bad regime imposed upon the masses.  The same way they are not &quot;imposed&quot; upon the people in the Bible Belt.<p>And lest we feel much superior, those kind of laws and public sentiment was common place in the far more wealthy and educated West too. Just 50 years ago there was open, legal even, segregation. Just today there&#x27;s widespread support for police brutality. And just 75 years ago several million jews&#x2F;homosexuals&#x2F;communists and gypsies were obliterated in the center of &quot;civilized Europe&quot;.<p>And if you think those times are &quot;ancient history&quot; and can&#x27;t understand why everyone hasn&#x27;t moved forward since then, just remember stuff that&#x27;s still acceptable (or going on anyway) in some places, from the death penalty and racially motivated police shootings, to mass surveillance. Or consider the fact that &quot;sodomy&quot; stopped being a crime only 10-15 years ago in tons of places. And that &quot;moving forward&quot; is easier when you&#x27;re not in a state of war or even fearful of those preaching &quot;moving forward&quot;.