It was also (and arguably still is) way freer that any other country. In terms of freedom of religion, political, and economic freedoms. Its individualist culture is way more conducive to accepting differences, and being an immigrant nation from the start, making it your new home is much more natural.
One country is liberal and democratic, the other one currently keeps an ethnic minority in reeducation camps, due to cultural non-conformance. In one country the current leader's power to change things has been significantly limited, while 90% of the mass media has been downright scornful about him, and the judiciary refusing to do everything he wants, in the other the leader can cancel IPOs, put CEOs in prison for decades for disrespect.
I.e. your level of legal protection is not comparable between these two countries.
So we are indeed in a global competitive job market, but not all presumed competitors are actually competitive.
It is shocking that people still talk about America as this place with amazing freedom. That has simply not been true in a long time. Especially looking at the disaster that is American democracy today, it is hard to grasp how people can still cling to this idea.
Among all developed countries I have visited and lived in America has always felt most like a police state to me. Cops are aggressive, overzealous and tend to show zero tolerance. In general anybody with some authority are kind of scary in the US. Just look at immigration in the US. You will be hard pressed to find immigration in other developed countries behaving in this manner.
What I notice most interacting with American at authorities are all the threats. Pretty much any document you sign elaborate quite a lot on the dire consequences of filling it out wrong.
And as one can see online and I have experience myself, the Us is a country in perpetual paranoia. Cops get called all the time for nothing. And they abide. There is not any issue small enough for them to not show up. And they are not nice. They act like police state police. You can look at videos online of police arrests and dealing with different situations. American police tend to escalate and be very brutal. Slamming people to the ground. Beating them up. Pointing guns and yelling. Handcuffing even small kids. A ridiculous practice seen from the perspective of other actually free countries.
No, the US is an embarrassment to liberal democracy. It makes the rest of us living in democracies look bad.
>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.
> In any other country you would find speech regulations and exceptions to constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech rights.
Copyright is draconian in the USA and has imposed its model worldwide. It has been used to silence even critics to religion organizations like Scientology.
USA has more freedom to express racist sentimens than other Western countries. And companies are allowed to use 'freedom of expression' with money to buy political favors, known as corruption in many other countries.
The USA has many positive things to offer, but also many flaws that did not fix while it was the dominant power.
> What is happening right now in Belarus likely wouldn't have happened if the citizenry had been armed
As you can see from nearby Poland, this just means that you have to get the armed rightwing section of the populace on board first.
I think the thing to learn from is Amartya Sen's "capability" model: how well does the theoretical freedom to do X and Y match up to the practical ability to achieve it? For many people, the lack of an economic safety net is a far more immediate and pressing problem than a theoretical government coup.
Wake up. With a president actively trying to overturn election outcome? Attacking the very system that puts him in power 4 years ago? No, the world is watching, and they are not stupid.
He's closer than you'd think. The US constitution gives state legislatures virtually unchecked authority to choose their own electors regardless of what state laws or courts say, without needing any other justification (eg. no evidence or even claims of fraud required).
Some, if not all, of the legislatures of PA, MI, GA, and WI will be sending their own GOP electors.
Those electors arguably take precedence over electors chosen by other legal processes, like democratic votes, according to the US Constitution. Because this issue does not concern state laws (or fraud allegations) whatsoever, the matter will go directly to federal courts.
Looking past the smoke screen of poorly supported fraud allegations and popular reporting's misdirected focus on the obvious lack of merit of said allegations, last night's impromptu PA legislative hearing was a major turning point in this situation.
It was also (and arguably still is) way freer that any other country. In terms of freedom of religion, political, and economic freedoms. Its individualist culture is way more conducive to accepting differences, and being an immigrant nation from the start, making it your new home is much more natural.
One country is liberal and democratic, the other one currently keeps an ethnic minority in reeducation camps, due to cultural non-conformance. In one country the current leader's power to change things has been significantly limited, while 90% of the mass media has been downright scornful about him, and the judiciary refusing to do everything he wants, in the other the leader can cancel IPOs, put CEOs in prison for decades for disrespect.
I.e. your level of legal protection is not comparable between these two countries.
So we are indeed in a global competitive job market, but not all presumed competitors are actually competitive.