As much as I like internet flame wars, I will try to explain this as politely as possible, Europe as a whole is still pretty shitty in various ways, especially eastern Europe. There has been many spikes of populism, Fascism and reactionary policies even in pretty progressive countries like the Netherlands and Germany.
However, since I'm not that familiar to say much about Germany, I would say that western Europe is a better place to live in as not only a person from a minority group, but also as an average person.
I know that you want to talk about more cultural attitudes around here, but I also want to flex on more economic shit. With the EU placing stricter regulations on consumer products like make-up or food, most things you can buy in Europe are generally safer than in America. Also, when you are poor in Europe, there are many safety nets that make it that you won't die and starve whenever the next economic recession strikes. While many Americans struggle to pay their medical bills, in the Netherlands, I know that almost everyone is at least covered in some way. Visiting the GP is free here. Also, going to college still costs money in western Europe, but you at least don't have a crippling debt at the end of it. The Netherlands tried to introduce the loaning system for a few years, but now many political parties already have huge regrets about it, haha...
Okay, now I want to talk about the cultural questions. I hope that I can bring my own take to this all. To be honest, flag flying is something that is usually not done in Europe except in government buildings and perhaps soccer and other sports event. I have a feeling that in Europe the overwhelming patriotism has died down a bit. (i think it's because Europe as a whole has experienced the main brunt of two world wars, both fueled by an intense nationalism.)
I personally have no problem with patriotism. What I frankly do find disgusting is that patriotism has often been used as an excuse to bring other groups of people down or to claim that other people do not belong here. When many European "patriots" talk about "their pride as a blabla citizen", they mostly talk about esoteric stuff like preserving their "culture", their renaissance paintings or how they conquered half of the world or something like that. In the Netherlands, people who call themselves patriotic do that same shit too and it's pretty cringy when you hear them talk this lingo. Most of the time they brag and larp about the golden age, saying how cool it is that the Dutch have their trading company and their colonies.
I know, I know, it's sometimes pretty petty to shit on these small things, but the main reason why I don't like the concept of unconditionally supporting and loving your country is that this attitude will deter good-faith criticism and desires to make a country a better place to live in. It was the same with the implementation of gay marriage. Not a long time ago, people were yelling: "This country is already so much better than saudi-arabia that will stone the gays to death. Why do they now want marriage? Isn't this enough?" You know, I think it takes more guts to love your country while still to acknowledging that your country is shit and that many stuff still has to be done. I still love Dutch fried stuff, the disgusting licorice and the people who I grew up with. I wouldn't want to ever live in any other place than here. I just sometimes want to whip the Netherlands into shape at the same time. I think that many people think the same way here.
Oh yeah, you actually mention the Syrian refugee crises and the immigrant stuff right? Dude, as someone who has grown up during that era and followed the news for a while, most tabloid magazines were not shy to describe these refugees as "hordes" or "plagues". During youtube's golden era, you had plenty of very popular "influencers" like Paul joseph Watson, Lauren Southern and Sargon of Akkad whose whole job it was to talk about muslim rape gangs. No one here is being silenced. In the Netherlands we even have a party called the PVV which was solely created to criticize muslims and immigrants. They once got 30 percent of the vote. No one here is being silenced.There was even an infamous study posted by the university of Amsterdam that details how many Muslims in every Muslim country want the implementation of Sharia. With a little bit of effort, you can get a hold of that article.
If you want to see how bad it was, I guarantee that in the period of 2014/2015, there was always at least one article describing how much of a problem they were. I have taken the time to read this article and I have the feeling that you had taken the first few sentences and went ahead with it. Many of the problems these European countries had, were not due to lax immigration policies, but due to stricter regulations that resulted in family separation and unemployment. If you went ahead and read more of this article, the rise of rape amongst the new flood of immigrants was due to the demographics of these immigrants and not for the fact that they were Syrians or immigrant; they were mainly young men who to be honest are likely to rape more than the average person. Massive wealth inequality and poverty, something attributed to these immigrants are also the main driving factors of petty crime like stealing and burglary.
Okay, before anyone will say that you just can kick all these immigrants back to Syria or whatever country they came from, I will say this. These people are desperate, so desperate in fact that they were willing to leave their friends and family behind to travel in tiny rubber boats to some country they have no connection with. To be pragmatic and cold-hearted about it; what will happen if all of Europe refuses to house them? These desperate little shits will of course not politely listen, no, they will just reach any border country like Greece or Turkey and sit there causing huge problems for them. That was also exactly what happened during this refugee crises. Many western countries were hesitant to take many immigrants in fearing public backlash, so South Europe who was really not equipped to handle this much people was tasked with bearing the full brunt of this refugee crises. We sadly do not have a large sea between us and the refugees like other countries.
There's also this notion that it is due to these vaguely "woke" and "progressive" stuff that the government sometimes does, that makes people extremists. I hate to say it, but it is actually due to massive income inequality, wage stagnation and general economic instability. To be honest, most of these liberal parties in Europe shill for multi-national companies and big lobbyists. They placate the average citizen with vaguely nice words about equality and acceptance while fueling unethical business practices and simultaneously making no significant changes to the current system. They are basically the equivalent of the moderate wings of democrats of the united states.
Just like the Weimar republic, when the next enormous economic crises comes and when people are poor, overworked and desperate, they will want true social changes. The only two ways that a person can travel on is like you said: the extreme right or the extreme left.
It seemed like I have been shitting on Europe for whole paragraphs right now, but to give an answer to your question why the US should aspire to become more like Europe culturally, it is that we are at least not as far down the rabbit hole as the US is in now. Western Europe sucks, but we sure suck less than the US.
I could give you many examples how the ways that US handles some certain aspects of their own history, sex education and other cultural stuff are just handled way worse than I have ever seen in the Netherlands and other western European countries. For example "the lost cause myth" is still taught in Southern states, abstinence only sex-ed is still a thing, gay conversion camps still exist, petty things like critical race theory being taught in some universities and allowing people in the bathroom of their own choice are treated as the threat of the whole western civilization. To add some extra fuel to these hot oil topics, Europe at least doesn't have to deal with massive BLM protests to the same degree as America has. Come on, how long has it been already, a year? You even called in the national guard. To think that so many American citizens are so unhappy about the cultural zeitgeist of America that they were more willing to protest for free on the street than continue to work to meet their enormously high rent quota. It also still pains me that dipshits like Tucker Carlson, a news anchor who lies more than the average politician, is one of the most watched people in your nation. You can look this up in politifact: https://www.politifact.com/personalities/tucker-carlson/
Still, I have to admit that I also like many aspects of American culture. I sure as hell find American music more appealing than any form of Dutch pop music garbage like the toppers or Gordon AKA Nederpop. Fuck, I like that you basically invented rock and jazz, my go-to music genres. Your writers are also pretty awesome. Come on, it's no fair that you had lovecraft, the founder of cosmic horror and a huge chunk of all fantasy novels ever published and their shitty fanfiction. American movies are also better produced and look prettier than most Dutch movies. Have you ever listened to Dutch sound work? For years it sounded like crap. Hell, even the fact that I'm writing this all in English and not in Spanish or German says a lot about American superiority right?
Last point, maybe I'm just a soy munching sappy libtard and the European version of a dipshit extremist leftist communist member of antifa right now, but I truly fail to see why making a place a bit more welcoming and livable for certain marginalized groups would harm anyone. The more people who are happy, the better right? (By the way, most policies which benefit marginalized groups also indirectly and directly benefit the rest of the population. Giving unemployed people money? These people can continue to buy stuff, which stimulates the economy.)
