Generally, people have always been largely indifferent to everyone except themselves. A free life is a handful.
That is what individual freedom is all about. Don’t worry about your neighbor. Take care of yourself and let him take care of himself - except maybe in emergency to help the other guy.
The difference is the haters of individual freedom and happiness have eroded the only legal bulwark of protection of individual freedom - the U.S. Constitution.
It’s a call to action to those who otherwise mind their own busniess.
Well, I would point out that back 200 years ago, the government was small and weak and didn’t much interfere with people. So, Americans were quite free. But life can still be hard. No big government means no safety net, and no health insurance, and no food supplements, and no retirement fund. Americans were up to that challenge — it wasn’t such a big deal.
But if you needed help, you had your church, and your neighbors, and perhaps a benevolent society. People did look out a little bit for each other because, hey, someone had to. Today, I think part of the indifference is because “Your problems are not my problems, if you need help go ask a federal agency. And in the meantime, leave me alone, my TV show is on.”