Of course, there is no room in a short polemic to list all relevant sources, but generally, they agree with these rather informal words from a noted weekly journal. One of the most probable answers is that they did not review the large number of studies on the relationship between cultural and socio economic variables. For example they equate individualism with parochialism and distrust among Americans. But, beside some rhetoric, they are not able to support their claim. This comes as no surprise because the literature shows that neither claim is true.
Universalism is, of course, the opposite to particularism.
Antisocial Neither is it true that Americans are antisocial. Americans may be very distrustful of government, but that does not mean that they are antisocial. On the contrary, it was noted as long ago as 1830, by Alexis de Tocqueville, that Americans maintain complex associational lives. A more recent and empirical work by Ronald Inglehart, examined a large number of surveys conducted during the last 25 years about cultural and political values and attitudes. Although he did note a slight decrease in the interpersonal trust in the United States, the present level is still similar to that in Britain, Ireland, Japan.