It's almost like you go out of your way to consistently prove me right. You just proved my point in the first half of your analogy, then refute your own points halfway through.

Democracy = Self-Governance - A system run by individual's who's laws and power rest on a popularity contest.

The analogy in the meme = "Someone who doesn't return a shopping cart is lazy" *This is very common behaviour of at least half of shoppers*

The point = You can't have a system that functions based on a popularity contest that in it's very nature creates plutocracy and tribalism that tears apart society. This relies on the goodness of people that doesn't exist when there's tribalism. Democracy would require a totally homogenous society where in which laws and ideals are so ingrained that they are enforced by law to keep the peace.

Or you can skip all of that and have a fascistic multi-country/continent spanning Empire that accounts for cultural individuality and national sovereignty but are states of a larger Imperial community with a strong, moral leader and an effective Imperial senate with regional governors.

>My previous username

"The flaw in your analogy is your claim that "at least half of shoppers" don't return their shopping carts. If I were to go to a store and look around, I would likely see the majority of shopping carts put in the proper location after they are used, because that's what I nearly always see..."

perhaps you forgot to give credit to the workers who's job it is to locate abandoned and lost shopping carts to neatly return them for your usage. The order of the shopping carts required enforcement.

"While it's true that a pure democracy is essentially a system where the majority rules, if the majority of the people in that country share values and goals which are beneficial to the greater society and minority groups as well, then that society can function pretty well..."

Problem is, democracy lives on borrowed time, the values of the people fracture and tribalism grows until the nation is destroyed (See the USA for example)
racism for example is a product of tribalism within society, especially when the nation is less humongous.
Just because the people who start democracies are homogenous, doesn't mean their decedents will be. This is how America is tearing itself apart, and this is why you will loose, have lost and will continue to fail your allies and sever ties through your countries greed-driven exploits in foreign affairs. Imperialism seeks integration where your democracies seek theft.