>It is shocking that people still talk about America as this place with amazing freedom. Find me a country with anything comparable to the First Amendment's cu

>It is shocking that people still talk about America as this place with amazing freedom. Find me a country with anything comparable to the First Amendment's current absolutist interpretation. In any other country you would find speech regulations and exceptions to constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech rights. Cops are indeed more nervous in the US, but that is because the US is unique in the world with citizenry having a right to bear arms (and pretty serious arms at that, like easily concealable handguns or the .50 cal, automatic assault rifles if you are rich). Nowadays it's fashionable to underestimate the importance of that right, but armed citizenry is a very important factor, a deterrent in the minds of those who would dare to attempt to take the rights away. What is happening right now in Belarus likely wouldn't have happened if the citizenry had been armed, because using armed forces against your own people, starting a civil war, will look like a risky proposition even to a strongmen. You are focusing on the behavior of the police, and there are indeed issues. Whatever cops do right now happens because American public lacks sufficient understanding of the issues, not because the country is an authoritarian police state. But the police behavior isn't the whole picture. There is also a legal system, the free press, and an uncensored internet access. While police may be rough, your chances of getting unfairly convicted are actually pretty low, provided you have money of course. >other actually free countries. I assume you are talking about western European countries with all kinds of limitations on speech and expression, and disarmed populace. To each their own, but I would not consider them freer than the US. And I'm saying that as someone who grew up in an authoritarian unfree country.