> In the US because we have constitutional freedom of speech. In the UK we recently lost a lot of fundamental freedoms. Our current Tory party are spiteful and

> In the US because we have constitutional freedom of speech. In the UK we recently lost a lot of fundamental freedoms. Our current Tory party are spiteful and corrupt. > Unless you think the UK and Germany are authoritarian? There are extremist authoritarians everywhere. That was my point in the original post. And since they are essentially anti-democratic I think it's fair to label them as traitors and "enemies within". > Besides, there are things we cannot even criticise in this forum. We know that. Ycombinator has owners and a clear agenda. The punishment is being down-voted and made invisible. But there are ways to challenge entrenched ideas here and drag difficult topics out into the sunlight. > What are the ideals? Human rights. Particularly freedom of speech. > Other than maintaining the European domination of the world? I don't think it's fair to equate those things. I'm well aware of historical hegemony, That torch passed to the USA in the last century. > What? You sound like the morons that think we invade Iraq to bring freedom and democracy. Oh dear. I don't know where to start with all that. Iraq was an offensive resource war waged by the US to secure oil, with the side effect of toppling a disobedient puppet and assuaging the egos of two second rate Western leaders. That's not even debatable now. But to confuse that with the defeat of Nazism and Fascism in a world war in which 80-100 million people died shows an astonishingly poor grasp of history and politics.