[In_Iowa_not_from]

Prior to WW2, it was those 2 huge oceans on either side of the country...perhaps they’re thinking that now? Unless you can come up with a better answer.

That definitely is part of it. But it's also a cultish belief in the 'power of positive thinking'. They feel that slogans and platitudes are all that are needed. Here's an interesting tidbit I found:

In his book, Authentic Happiness, Seligman writes “positive thinking often involves trying to believe upbeat statements such as ‘Every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better,’ in the absence of evidence, or even in the face of contrary evidence.” But while some people may be able to buy into affirmations and other positive statements like these, Seligman warns that “many educated people, trained in skeptical thinking, cannot manage this kind of boosterism.”

Every decade or so another wave of positive thinking zealotry gets pushed a little further into the American mainstream. Beyond merely thinking positively, these belief systems foment an inability to hold, process, or empathize with so-called “negative” feelings and emotions. The result is a culture or atmosphere that becomes toxic and oppressive.

[grey_whiskers]

‘Every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better,’

That's what Chief Inspector Dreyfus kept telling himself after getting out of the mental institution in the old Pink Panther comedies...