[RealJames]

Aspartame makes me gag.

I suppose the passion with which Western cultures tend to bicker about points that many Asians tend to just not get flustered about is the cultural distinction I'm making, not the side of the fence someone is on, but rather how red-faced they might get in upholding their beliefs, it all starts to look the same.
And I'm not sure that the general opinions on the topics you mentioned are strong in either direction.
When it comes to homosexuality, abortions, religion, capital punishment etc I'm pretty sure that conversations I've had with people from all western lands have been quite similar, and I'd bet that the polls would be quite close. I wonder if there are statistics on this...