It's the exact term from the book, it's not my own description, that's why I put it in quotations. I do think it's mainly a neutral description. I don't really get why you're so bothered by it.
I never said they couldn't conform, just that they're in a society where they haven't had to to the same degree that we have, but if you were to gate off New York City, tell them all they were being protected from some unseen, unspeakable evil, and divide them all up, then yes, I think the same exact thing would happen over time. The fact is though that they don't live like that, and their lives and personalities are impacted by the world they live in just like ours. Presumably this is how people lived in our world before the wars, so how can we be exactly the same as them? Do you think the factions have had no effect at all?