All that does is make me distrust the freedom index. The US isn't the bastion of freedom it's government likes it's people to believe, and there are European c

All that does is make me distrust the freedom index. The US isn't the bastion of freedom it's government likes it's people to believe, and there are European countries that strongly value freedom, but particularly the big/core EU countries and the UK are absolutely not free, nor are any of the other anglophone countries. I could believe someone telling me Switzerland and Finland are more free than the US. They seem like very freedom loving people with governments that mostly leave them alone. Many of the metrics in the index I do believe apply and the US government's propaganda tries to focus on it's strengths instead of the aspects where it is not free. Freedom to trade internationally and regulation are good examples of that. Nonetheless, any country where you can't speak your mind freely you absolutely aren't free no matter what it's score on other metrics. The fact that Canada ranks higher than the US speaks to the fact that the index is extremely flawed. Many of these countries ranking higher than the US have banned books and jailed people for speaking words.