A lot of our social faux pas have been ctrl-c ctrl-v'd whole cloth from the USA, without consideration for context or history. I've even heard people parrot the line that 'we are a nation of immigrants', which makes even less sense in Europe than it does in America (where it doesn't make that much sense either). I think it's just a consequence of the USA being the de facto leader of the Western world. A lot of the cultural context in Europe is full of American hang-ups, even when it doesn't hold up to even cursory scrutiny.