Prior to 6–9 thousand years ago, all human societies used taking care of the group as a survival strategy, and this worked, even when the group went from 20–50 in your tribe to 10K in your village, as with Çatalhöyük, which still was a leaderless community with enforced egalitarianism for several thousand years. Once the social structure changes to one where it’s every man (and his family) for themselves, because it’s become a dog-eat-dog world, and as the population explodes with the advent of agriculture, this kind of “caring for the community” becomes harder to do. However, as I pointed out in the OP, it’s a central part of Danish culture and contributes to them having not only a competitive economy but a very high standard of living all around. There are also many other cultures around the world that don’t have a social system based in a dominance hierarchy, although many of them are on the smaller side as well.

Patriarchal dominance hierarchies have survived for so long because those with the most power perpetuate them in order to continue to benefit from the unequal access to authority and material goods. And in order to keep those lower down the hierarchy in line, they foster the lie that they are where they are due to merit all the while erecting artificial barriers to actual competition — something that I’ve given several examples of.

Your comment about fearing “throwing the baby out with the bathwater” is a perfect example of how uncomfortable many people feel about changing to a more equitable system. They’ve been so indoctrinated into the rightness of the current one that anything else feels disruptive. It’s why, despite many progressive options, Biden eventually emerged as the clear front runner. People toy with the idea of changing things up, but in the end, they still revert back to what feels most comfortable, an old, white, rich, hetero, Christian man who is casually sexist and racist in a way that is not outrageous (usually) but does reaffirm the “traditional” social hierarchy. That’s also Trump’s main attraction because the only thing he truly stands for is a return to the traditional social hierarchy. That’s what MAGA is code for.

Thanks for your assumption that I don’t know what I’m talking about as relates to Peterson. That kind of thing truly never gets old.