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The counterpoint to that is the fact we know about these issues and can talk about them freely. In a country on the opposite side of the spectrum, doing that l

The counterpoint to that is the fact we know about these issues and can talk about them freely. In a country on the opposite side of the spectrum, doing that lands you in secret jail.

Ma8ee 6y ago
Is really your best excuse that there are countries that are worse?
- starfallg 6y ago
  No, I'm just pointing out that there is a real difference between places where there is a free press and places where there is not and the state is empowered to clamp down on ideas it doesn't like.
  - Ma8ee 6y ago
    That sounds the same to me. Of course there are worse places than the US. You aren’t Saudi Arabia, Russia or China, Belarus or even Turkey. But you aren’t even in the top ten in regards to freedom, democracy, equality, social mobility, health, etc. I’d much rather live in any of the Nordic countries, Germany, the Netherlands, France, ...
    - starfallg 6y ago
      Well, funnily enough, I'm not in the US either.
somesortofsystm 6y ago
ahem Do you remember who Julian Assange is? ahem
- starfallg 6y ago
  The fact that you can talk about Julian Assange openly is the point. It doesn't matter what he did was lawful or not, or whether the law itself is right or wrong. In the end, he decided to hole himself up in a foreign embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden on some sex charges.
  - somesortofsystm 6y ago
    No, he didn't. That is entirely and absolutely FALSE, and you are feeding this false narrative by parroting this nonsense. He offered to go back to Sweden to face the charges on the proviso that he would not be expedited from Sweden to the USA. This was not guaranteed. Julian Assange is a political prisoner. All of the bogus sex crime charges against him have been dropped, and were never intended to be anything but a lever to get him to go back to Sweden so he could be extrajudicially rendered back to the USA - since Sweden and the USA have a track record of such criminal behaviour, Julian rightfully required a guarantee that the Swedish government could not provide. And as a result Julian Assange is currently being psychologically tortured in Belmarsh - and has yet to face any of the charges against him. Nobody should think that Assanges' case upholds the highest values of Western legal justice, because it does not. What is being done to Julian is tantamount to the same sort of treatment one would expect to happen to dissidents in dictatorships. Stop spreading the nonsense, and learn the facts about his case - it is chilling to the core.

The counterpoint to that is the fact we know about these issues and can talk about them freely. In a country on the opposite side of the spectrum, doing that lands you in secret jail.

Ma8ee 6y ago

Is really your best excuse that there are countries that are worse?

starfallg 6y ago
No, I'm just pointing out that there is a real difference between places where there is a free press and places where there is not and the state is empowered to clamp down on ideas it doesn't like.
- Ma8ee 6y ago
  That sounds the same to me. Of course there are worse places than the US. You aren’t Saudi Arabia, Russia or China, Belarus or even Turkey. But you aren’t even in the top ten in regards to freedom, democracy, equality, social mobility, health, etc. I’d much rather live in any of the Nordic countries, Germany, the Netherlands, France, ...
  - starfallg 6y ago
    Well, funnily enough, I'm not in the US either.

somesortofsystm 6y ago

ahem Do you remember who Julian Assange is? ahem

starfallg 6y ago
The fact that you can talk about Julian Assange openly is the point. It doesn't matter what he did was lawful or not, or whether the law itself is right or wrong. In the end, he decided to hole himself up in a foreign embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden on some sex charges.
- somesortofsystm 6y ago
  No, he didn't. That is entirely and absolutely FALSE, and you are feeding this false narrative by parroting this nonsense. He offered to go back to Sweden to face the charges on the proviso that he would not be expedited from Sweden to the USA. This was not guaranteed. Julian Assange is a political prisoner. All of the bogus sex crime charges against him have been dropped, and were never intended to be anything but a lever to get him to go back to Sweden so he could be extrajudicially rendered back to the USA - since Sweden and the USA have a track record of such criminal behaviour, Julian rightfully required a guarantee that the Swedish government could not provide. And as a result Julian Assange is currently being psychologically tortured in Belmarsh - and has yet to face any of the charges against him. Nobody should think that Assanges' case upholds the highest values of Western legal justice, because it does not. What is being done to Julian is tantamount to the same sort of treatment one would expect to happen to dissidents in dictatorships. Stop spreading the nonsense, and learn the facts about his case - it is chilling to the core.