When you consider the school shootings, mass shootings, insane medical debt, and the fact that we have 8x the traffic fatality rate per capita of many developed nations, etc, I don't blame people for seeing the US as being a lawless dumpster fire.

If you disagree, next time you are out driving try to estimate how many drivers actually follow the law (drive below the speed limit, stop at crosswalks, slow down even more when visibility is poor or there are pedestrians or children nearby, etc).

Also, how many people drive small cars that are cleaner and safer for our communities vs giant Wankpanzers? People who are willing to make our cities more polluted and more dangerous for everyone overall just to make themselves slightly safer are morally bankrupt even if they technically follow the law they don't value the spirit of the law.

Chinese Rednote users actually seem to have a relatively utopian view of the US. I'm seeing alot of posts asking if it's true that most Americans can afford to own a house and being corrected by americans in the comments; stuff like that.

Also they really like Luigi Mangione lol, even before americans came into the app.

I think a big part of it is the community guidelines and moderation (of both places). I reported someone for being racist on RedNote and action was actually taken, unlike on a lot of western social media.

I'll look around to see if I can find those show segments online, but as for 'are they panicking?', mass media has a vested interest in influencing public opinion (that's effectively the only reason a private business bothers with news) and therefore control over public opinion. If the people who own the show and the channel give orders, the writers and actors probably won't risk getting fired. (oh, and obligatory quick clip to demonstrate what ownership looks like, for those who haven't seen it: "This Is Extremely Dangerous to Our Democracy")

So, with that in mind, recall the reactions of almost all mass media to the UnitedHealthcare assassination: consistent critique and denouncement. Surely this wasn't how all the news anchors felt, given how positive general opinion was! The people with ownership and executive power over these media channels obviously don't want the idea of citizens shooting the dangerously rich and powerful to get popular, so we saw their ideas echoed in all the news.

Compare that to here: media channels outside of China don't really want that counter-narrative to gain traction. It goes against their inherent interest of influencing public opinion, it's a competitor which all the biggest media companies can agree to call bad news. So I have no doubt this unexpected and surprising turn would make them panic.

edit: the clips I found from Colbert and The Daily Show were a surprisingly mixed bag. For example, this Daily Show clip comes off more as a satirical jab at the US than any panic.