5 ms·
Favouriting this for the next time someone on here tells me we don't have free speech in Europe, only in the US
by jimnotgym 6mo ago
Favouriting this for the next time someone on here tells me we don't have free speech in Europe, only in the US
- linohh 6mo agoJD Vance has to save all of Europe because of checks notes lack of free speech. /s
- generic92034 6mo agoWell, he did a good job of freeing Hungary from Orban. So, cut him some slack. /s
- benterix 6mo agoParadoxically they are so stupid they thought they are actually helping Orban not realizing Europeans consider them idiots.
- lostlogin 6mo agoVance is far shrewder than many of the surrounding idiots. My guess is that he went because someone like Trump thought it a good idea, and kissing arse is Vance’s current strategy.
- kakacik 6mo agoWell its the only winning strategy currently, thats for sure. But good for us, more visits of these folks who have very negative image in rest of the world. Any corrupt entrenched a-hole would be nice, what about Fico in Slovakia? Orban's best buddy in mindset and methodologies. Next one is Babis in Czech republic. With that done, EU would be free from corrupt russian double agents, for now at least.
- 2ndorderthought 6mo agoHave you listened to that guy say anything about anything? He's about as shrewd as a turnip or any invertebrate
- lostlogin 6mo agoAfter seeing how meeting the pope went, I’m surprised Orban was keen for a visit. He was lucky it was just his political death.
- fragmede 6mo agoWho's still claiming the US has free speech?
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- watwut 6mo agoPeople who frame UK as oppressive hellhole, but somehow like former Hungarian leader and know all the talking points of the American conservative right.
- freehorse 6mo agoMoreover, the repeating talking points of these people seemed to exclusively be around some cases where police intervened for certain comments on transgender issues (and imo indeed police shouldn't). It was a big issue back then, but when police intervenes now (mostly UK/germany) for certain comments on the palestinean issues, or when bank accounts are blocked for this reason (under cross-border requests from the US no less), they no longer seem to care. Makes you think whether they did not really care as much about free speech itself, actually.
- saidnooneever 6mo agomost ppl only care about their own speech being free
- pjc50 6mo ago> exclusively be around some cases where police intervened for certain comments on transgender issues Those tended to be gratuitously misreported as well, where the reports would say "this person was arrested for making [relatively innocuous comment] on social media]" and then you discover that the actual issue was a lengthy period of harassment and doxing directed at a specific trans person. Or encouraging other people to burn down a hotel, or so on.
- tdeck 6mo agoFreedom House. But then again, most of their funding comes from the US state department.
- amelius 6mo agoSee if you can find the US in these rankings: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Press_Freedom_Index https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Press_Freedom_Index
- rob74 6mo agoLIES from the Radical Left Lunatics from reporters without borders! Also, total Losers! USA is #1 in not Supressing the Speech that Really Matters!
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- VBprogrammer 6mo agoYou did a good job of walking the line here. A tiny bit less over the top and I'd have not been convinced it was satire.
- GJim 6mo agoMore evidence, if it's needed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist_Democracy_Index https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist_Democracy_Index The USA's score has taken rather a tumble since 2016 (I wonder why?).
- riffraff 6mo agojust a note: the RSF World Press Freedom Index is not based on hard data or sound statistics, it's based on a few questionnaires sent to journalists picked by RSF itself. How many it's unclear, but it was ~150[0] some years ago, of which 50 in France[1] to monitor 180 countries. It's worth as a generic "are we doing better than last year?" but I wouldn't consider ranking to be particularly meaningful. [0] https://web.archive.org/web/20130819031406/http://en.rsf.org/IMG/pdf/2013_wpfi_methodology.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20130819031406/http://en.rsf.org... [1] https://akademie.dw.com/en/the-press-freedom-index-by-reporters-without-borders/a-18250340 https://akademie.dw.com/en/the-press-freedom-index-by-report...
- 6mo ago
- tick_tock_tick 6mo agoWhy? The police aren't at his door and he's not been arrested it's not a good thing but we are still miles away from Europe.
- cma 6mo agoWriting an op-ed can get the police on you here. The first amendment isn't supposed to only apply to citizens. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/feb/18/rumeysa-ozturk-trauma-children-ice-gaza https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/feb/...
- ilogik 6mo agoA photo of seashells gets you indicted: https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/28/politics/justice-department-indicts-ex-fbi-director-james-comey-again https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/28/politics/justice-departme...
- piva00 6mo agoEurope where? Europe is a whole continent with 40+ different countries...
- koliber 6mo agoShe is a woman. There are so many shades of gray in freedom of speech. In free European countries the police are also not at the door of outspoken government critics. If you are alluding to dictatorial European countries like Russia and Belarus, the US is miles away and moving in their direction. Compared to Western Europe, there is no difference.
- ilogik 6mo agoWhere is there a problem in Europe? I if want to go to the US on the other hand, I need to give them my social media accounts. That doesn't sound like free speech to me
- bjourne 6mo agoYou will be subject to mandatory facial recognition technology with long-term storage, though. The US may certainly be the worst but Europe is also going in an authoritarian direction.
- benterix 6mo agoPeople who say there is no free speech in Europe have never lived in an authoritarian country.
- tokai 6mo agoBut its mainly Americans saying it here on HN.
- kakacik 6mo agoI haven't seen it here much (apart from proper rednecky comments equating carrying gun everywhere with some actual personal freedoms but those are rare). But most US population ain't HN, at all. Most don't travel, get their opinion on the world from CNN or Fox news with corresponding results and thus have rather primitive view on rest of the world (sorry, that is true, one needs to travel a bit to understand world). You don't travel when you are crushed by debt and rising costs from all sides, do you.
- graemep 6mo agoThis is not only an American problem. Most people in most countries get their view of the rest of the world from mass media and social media. In some places people think particular groups they meet or read about (e.g. tourists or workers) are typical of the country they come from. Travel produces different distortions. A lot of British people think the rest of the world is a lot better than it is because they visit places on holiday: they visit nice places and have good experiences. I have known some to get into messes when they actually try to live somewhere else.
- myrmidon 6mo agoI think you can turn this into a proper, nuanced position by contrasting how the US typically values protection of free speech higher than protection from libel/slander/defamation. Just consider prominent recent examples, like the german student protester that was investigated by police and had his sign confiscated (it just said "Merz (current cancellor) suck balls"). This seems ridiculous and draconian by US standards.
- moi2388 6mo agoAs an European, you think you actually have free speech? Go say something negative about Muslims or your country being full during any protest, I dare you. Because you will absolutely face criminal charges for that.
- swordsith 6mo agoFacing reality is difficult for these euro types, they feel an need to to simultaneously hate America while also wanting to be like it.
- VBprogrammer 6mo agoPeople say shit about Muslims and our country being full all the time and nothing happens. The law does make it illegal to insight violence though so if you publicly suggest buring down a hotel you might find yourself in trouble. It makes a lot more sense than being investigated by the FBI because you wrote a negative article about the head or being charged for reposting some cryptic numbers.