It's more complicated than that: on the issues that are most controversial in the USA, it's true that other countries have what looks like a consensus by comparison. But other countries have their own issues that make Republicans look positively enlightened: see, for instance, many European countries' right-wing edge of opinion on immigration and diversity.
Sure, conservatives get bad in the States--see the attempt to block building a mosque in Tennessee by a bunch of drooling rednecks--but look at things comparatively. In Switzerland, they banned building mosques anywhere in the country. In France, they (successfully?) tried to regulate what clothing Muslim women can wear in public. And even those countries are relatively enlightened for Europe: try being an immigrant in Greece or gay in Russia.
The difference is that in Europe, the entire spectrum is much more visible because they come in separate parties.
And yes, you'll find lots of nutjobs, but overall, across Europe, for the most part those nutjobs are now marginalised one or two parties to the right of the mainstream right wing parties, whereas in the US the centre of gravity in terms of votes fall far closer to them.
(Btw. you bring up another interesting point: To most people in the Western parts of Europe, parts of Russia might be geographically Europe, but we don't tend to include it when talking about Europe; the same often goes for countries like Ukraine - I know I didn't even consider either of them when using the term Europe earlier)
Definitely, but a prevailing view amongst many HNers is that the world is the United States[1], so it was more about challenging that assumption than anything else.
