Because those people tend to come from a country which doesn't have laws open to interpretation and thus mark people who drunkenly pee on a fence with the same sex offender tag than child molesters. If you're country functions in a way where laws can't be interpreted according to context it's hard to think of a different system.
But they are different systems. For example contracts in the EU tend to be way shorter, as long as you get the gist. Contracts in the US are painfully long, listing things out explicitly, etc.
This exactly what rules-based regulation (US) and principles-based (EU) regulation means, and why the GDPR is written the way it is.
