Are American bike commuters big wussies?

Interesting article from pinchflatnews

It's a question that finally has to be asked, since our friends in Copenhagen have been insinuating it for some time now. We gather that in Denmark bike snobbery is sort of the mirror opposite of American bike snobbery. Fine bikes are looked down on as extravagant and unnecessary. Chainguards are celebrated with open admiration. Lycra and spandex are strictly reserved for Cirque du Soleil. Fixies are pretentious, unnecessary, dangerous, and an affront to the social order. And helmets are for the dim-witted and softheaded. Yes, it's probably true that Americans are too concerned about our gear. Being a culture of conspicuous consumerism, it is our general MO to find the best tool for the job, buy it, and then occasionally use it the wrong way, and more than likely replace it as soon as a better and shinier one is dangled in front of our noses. This is not something to be particularly proud of, but there it is. My personal philosophy is ride whatever and however you like. Whatever bakes your brownie, as they say. I should buy a boatload of cheap, crappy Danish-tailored suits that I can ride in to work, so that when the ass is blown out of them after the first week, I can throw on a new one. And the day they invent a chainguard that doesn't rattle until my fillings fall out of my head, hey, sign me up. But lookit: nothing will ever get between me and my top-secret cycling-specific underpants -- not you, not my wife, and certainly not a self-righteous and oversexed Danish bike commuter.