America was born after a revolution and we have always somewhat encouraged a rebellious streak. Teenagers go through a rebellious period as they learn how to be their own woman or man. Most of us get over this and generally become accepted members of society.
Not all of us though. In some cases our non-conformists end up doing great things. That is the rarity, not the norm.
Its a fairly recent phenomena that we have people who identify as rebels rebelling in favor of conservative values.
For example many people argue that society has turned against religion and you need to rebel to defend it. Since the great majority of Americans believe in God and to some extent attend religious services, what society are they fighting?
Similarly in a country with a great number of gun owners, they feel the need to protect their guns from people who want to seize them? While a few people may have proposed restricting certain types of guns, namely assault rifles, I have never seen a real proposal to seize everyone's guns.
They fight against a Government that simply doesn't and has never existed.
They didn't like government impose energy standards to reduce carbon and other pollutants.
People are railing against the machine except the machine doesn't actually exist.
Perhaps the line from Public Enemy "You got to fight the powers that be" sums it up best.
Or was is Cervantes having Don Quixote fighting windmills?
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