Comment by jimnotgym
5 hours ago
Favouriting this for the next time someone on here tells me we don't have free speech in Europe, only in the US
5 hours ago
Favouriting this for the next time someone on here tells me we don't have free speech in Europe, only in the US
People who say there is no free speech in Europe have never lived in an authoritarian country.
But its mainly Americans saying it here on HN.
I 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.
1 reply →
See if you can find the US in these rankings:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Press_Freedom_Index
More evidence, if it's needed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist_Democracy_Index
The USA's score has taken rather a tumble since 2016 (I wonder why?).
LIES from the Radical Left Lunatics from reporters without borders! Also, total Losers! USA is #1 in not Supressing the Speech that Really Matters!
Who's still claiming the US has free speech?
Freedom House. But then again, most of their funding comes from the US state department.
People who frame UK as oppressive hellhole, but somehow like former Hungarian leader and know all the talking points of the American conservative right.
Moreover, 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.
2 replies →
The US constitution?
JD Vance has to save all of Europe because of checks notes lack of free speech. /s
Well, he did a good job of freeing Hungary from Orban. So, cut him some slack.
/s
Paradoxically they are so stupid they thought they are actually helping Orban not realizing Europeans consider them idiots.
2 replies →
After seeing how meeting the pope went, I’m surprised Orban was keen for a visit. He was lucky it was just his political death.
Why? 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.
She 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.
Europe where? Europe is a whole continent with 40+ different countries...
The FBI shows up if you write about the pres.
But tbh its so much nicer when journalists self censor to not lose their job because of access to healthcare.
Or when billionaires buy entire media empires and fire journalists critical of the goverment.
Bezos owning WP, Murdoch owning everything else, Sinclair owning local stations... the free speech is so fucking goood
Writing 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/...
A photo of seashells gets you indicted:
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/28/politics/justice-departme...
Where 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
Chat Control is also at the door, and almost being invited in.
You 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.
1 reply →