Whenever I worry about losing my personal freedoms in the US, I just look to Europe where they never even had them. Then I don't feel so bad.
But really, this is not a problem. For 5 EUR a month, you can pass all your traffic through a VPN in some other country that doesn't censor the Internet.
(Of course, then they can block the VPN providers. But censorship is a big game of whack-a-mole, and the moles always win. I don't know why governments bother, but I guess cutting off file sharing is easier than solving society's real problems.
The amusing part about all of this is that cracking down on sharing TV shows has made it much easier for people distributing child porn and planning terrorist attacks to hide themselves from law enforcement. I am amused... but sad at the same time.)
"Whenever I worry about losing my personal freedoms in the US, I just look to Europe where they never even had them. Then I don't feel so bad."
I guess this is flamebait, but Europe is a diverse place of two dozen countries with their own legal systems. This diversity may well be an advantage over the US. If Belgium makes my life difficult, I can move my life and business 15 miles north to Holland, or 75 miles east to Germany or Luxembourg, across the Channel to the UK, or even 75 miles south to France, where they offer generous subsidies and tax breaks for the business that I am in. This is not a theoretical possibility - I have done it before, several times.
As to the personal freedoms you have in the US and we never had - I cannot even begin to imagine what those might be, though that could be a sign of me having grown up as a caged animal, never having tasted REAL freedom.
"Whenever I worry about losing my personal freedoms in the US, I just look to Europe where they never even had them. Then I don't feel so bad."
Not intended as flamebait. Think of all the CCTV cameras in the UK, laws against certain religious symbols in France and Turkey, and bans on board games in Germany. That stuff just doesn't happen in the US (except maybe the cameras... but speed / red-light cameras don't hold up in court very well).
Come now. I can go to Reddit and copy any number of headlines from there about outrageous stuff happening in the US. Perhaps something about trigger-happy taser cops, the TSA, or ever-growing prison population. Besides, as I said before, what applies to the countries you mention does not apply to all European nations.
How about this: I have two gay couples in my direct family that got married some years ago. Not 'civil union' or any of that stuff, but full on marriage, with the same rights as male-female couples. Or this: my ageing mother has determined she will want to have euthanasia under certain circumstances, and she will be able to, as it's been legal for years. Difficult for me to swallow, but it is her freedom to choose this. Another one: cannabis use - decriminalized. Have you got those freedoms in the US?
Let me be more explicit about my point: I posit that no nation on earth has the perfect legal system (not even the one with the constitution they are so proud of). Europe, with its right of free movement between nations for all European citizens, offers a unique advantage in that it allows citizens to shop around for the place that fits them best. Competition works - it made life on Earth possible, it makes capitalism work, and it keeps the nations of Europe in check.
That's a vision of Europe I never thought of! Sort of like the states of the United States, but without the overarcing central government.
Do European countries have lots of varied laws? I know nothing about Europe because I'm an ignorant American, but I know it gets called socialist a lot. Are there more capitalist/libertarian countries in the mix? I'm aware this is a reprehensibly ignorant question, and I apologize if it's so ignorant as to be offensive.
Indeed, as an American living in Holland I can say that the "freedom" I have here versus the "freedom" I have in the US are different in structure but equal in implementation.
Freedom, of course, is an ideology which we strive towards but can never truly attain because it will always mean different things to each individual. Some group of colonists a long time ago picked some attributes that they thought were important to their circumstances (British rule) and drew a clear line in the sand (guns, speech, religion, etc).
The Netherlands were formed under different circumstances, and maybe for them an individual's right to say whatever the fuck he wants to - no matter how bad it is - is important, but is superseded by a desire to preserve other 'freedoms' in a highly fragmented, multicultural environment historically prone towards minority persecution. Gun ownership is another good example: 'freedom' from the government, or 'freedom' to live in a society with a lower risk of being shot. There's no right answer, of course.
Personally, I feel just as free here as I do in the US. I can live in a similar fashion with no real restrictions that affect me or my friends, and feel that (should I disagree with the government) I can be politically active and not suffer from unfair retaliation. I can even vote here as a foreigner (try that in the US). Are there theoretical things I can't do here but can in the US? Of course, but that works both ways.
Laws against religious symbols in public places such as schools are what kept France from turning into a muslim country. But, this is the past. Even if those laws are still there, they are not upheld enough by far. Most muslims and teachers go against the law and let the muslim female wear their symbol of submission to muslim males domination.
You DO know there are countries in the world where women are KILLED because they didn't wear their Hijab or Burqa ?
This isn't a religious symbol I want allowed in France.
Freedom doesn't work if freedom allows stuff that go against freedom, like hate speech and hateful religions.
It's not so cut-and-dry as that, because the idea of complete freedom means you can have hate speech and hateful religions. George Carlin once proved this point emphatically by screaming the word "nigger" repeatedly, with the intent of having people less shocked at words. One thing he constantly would talk about in his routines is the idea that words lose power the more you use them, and that it's a bad thing to let a bad word have power over you.
Similarly, a person's religion is their choice. It should be wrong to discriminate based on religion, so long as you don't reverse discriminate as well. If a woman wants to wear a hijab, so long as it is her choice and nobody else's, she should be allowed. While you might argue that it's encouraging a phallocentric religion - and I'd agree - the solution isn't banning that religion, it's spreading reason far and wide so that more people make the choice to leave it.
I think it's not as bad here as in the US, but we're getting there soon with the government spying on all communcation (to conquer terrorism, as if terrorists don't know how to use a proxy...).
It won't become ubiquitous. Most people don't care ("I don't have anything to hide"). If the tend continues, encryption will not be allowed 20 years from now.
So this law not only allows ISPs to spy on our traffic, it requires them to do it?
Technically this will obviously be circumvented within.. well, it probably is circumvented already. But the direction our "representatives" are taking here is worrisome.
But really, this is not a problem. For 5 EUR a month, you can pass all your traffic through a VPN in some other country that doesn't censor the Internet.
(Of course, then they can block the VPN providers. But censorship is a big game of whack-a-mole, and the moles always win. I don't know why governments bother, but I guess cutting off file sharing is easier than solving society's real problems.
The amusing part about all of this is that cracking down on sharing TV shows has made it much easier for people distributing child porn and planning terrorist attacks to hide themselves from law enforcement. I am amused... but sad at the same time.)