Is the US substantially "freer" than most of Western Europe?

[Jon Miller]

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse


One very pertinent to where you live is Americans have mental maps of their cities, which areas are safe and which are not, which are for whites and which for coloureds and so on. How can you say you are free when you can't go past 13th street without taking your life in your hands? I remember very well getting detailed instructions on where not to go, and this was only a few blocks from the Whitehouse. It really made a deep impression on me - the capital of the free world is a city of fear, a city without real personal safety, a city where you can't walk the streets without watching your back.

This lack of personal freedom and safety and the consequences was brought out very well by Michael Moore in Bowling for Columbine - in Detroit its civil war and a third world kind of city divide. In Windsor, Canada, just across the river, people aren't even locking their doors at night!

So which is freer as a lived experience? The US or Canada? I dare say its Canada.

Ahhh, you cuold have gone there.

JM

[SlowwHand]

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse


two US "freedoms" undermine all the others - unfettered freedom of speech and the right to bear arms.

While I maintain my right to own firearms, the right to bear arms is intended to refer to the National Guard.

[Drake Tungsten]

BTW, Australian cities certainly are vastly safer.

Tell that to a Lebanese kid trying to get to the beach...

[Alexander's Horse]

I wanna go to the Gilmore Girls part of America, if it exists....

[Flip McWho]

Gilmore Girls

[Fake Boris]

Originally posted by DanS
Agree with Dino. Although to be fair, Europe is not monolithic in this regard.

Indirectly, much of that freedom is lost in media concentration.

[DanS]

Yes, much of whatever freedom Europeans have is lost in media concentration. In the hands of the gov't. In the hands of Berlusconi, Vivendi, etc.

[Fake Boris]

Read again. I didn't say that Europe wasn't affected, only that America was.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Harry Tuttle
Hmmmm, well how about the gun laws and speech laws in Britain? Aren't they more stringent than the U.S.?

Europeans have the freedom not to be shot.

[Alexander's Horse]

Eastern Europe is hell on wheels unless you have money or protection.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

dont think that america has the freest gun ownership laws - its switzerland, a country with 400,000 assault rifles in peoples houses, and unfettered access to all types of ammunition

[Jon Miller]

I want to get a gun.

JM

[Saras]

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
Eastern Europe is hell on wheels unless you have money or protection.

What crap.

[Alexander's Horse]

oh come one Saras - its all run by the mafia now - you never paid a bribe?

[Saras]

Of course I have, they'd take my drivers license away if I didn't pay half the official fine on the spot on numerous occasions

But otherwise, corruption is on par with European average, and better than some established EU countries (no names).

And mafia is dead/ on the run/ confessed and gotten religion, since about 1995-1997. Same for Estonia and Latvia, more or less.