Why is the United States so backwards?

It is a certain popular narrative that the US is more backward than many other Western countries while in reality the US has been and continues to lead the way in many areas of science, economics, social thought, conservation and many more. I will not deny our issues at all but often the true American thought leaders in those areas are not celebrated in pop culture. But you still see China sending thousands of academics here every year to copy and steal US tech.
Also you can and will find some backward things happening in almost every country that you can think of. For example in the UK in 2019 there were about 45K reported knife crimes a.k.a. stabbings,slashings or serious attempts at such.
Each country has a unique history, political system, people, and culture that has been shaped over many years and is not the sole fault of any one individual or political party. These things make up the what and why of the current state of each nation.