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This is my first time at the political forum so please bear with me. I'm asking this question to learn because as of now ive lived a shelter life when it comes to happenings around the globe.
One thing I'm interested in is I always hear conservatives say "vote for us-- keep your freedoms... otherwise we will end up like Western Europe". I then go read an article or look at the news on line and it would appear most people from England, France, Spain, Germany, etc are "free". They go to work, school, have families-- doesn't seem much different than what we do here in the states. So what freedoms do Americans have that folks in those other countries don't? I know guns is one-- but they still hunt in England? So can someone please help me understand? I need specifics....
Finally, I know there is A LOT of fear mongering out there. The quote above may just be that-- I don't know. Liberals are guilty at that as well....
I think what people mean when they say Europe isn't free like the US is because they're socialists. People in Europe look to and count on their government to take care of them. They always have.
Europe also doesn't believe in harsh punishments for criminals. There is no death penalty, no matter how heinous the crime. Another example of their softness towards crime is not allowing citizens to have pepper spray. If a juvi commits rape (in Sweden for example), they get off with as little as community service and monetary reparations. Even murderers walk after a few years in prison.
When you see it argued on CD, they're most likely referring to our 2nd amendment rights.
Last edited by Northeastah; 01-29-2016 at 11:22 AM..
This is my first time at the political forum so please bear with me. I'm asking this question to learn because as of now ive lived a shelter life when it comes to happenings around the globe.
One thing I'm interested in is I always hear conservatives say "vote for us-- keep your freedoms... otherwise we will end up like Western Europe". I then go read an article or look at the news on line and it would appear most people from England, France, Spain, Germany, etc are "free". They go to work, school, have families-- doesn't seem much different than what we do here in the states. So what freedoms do Americans have that folks in those other countries don't? I know guns is one-- but they still hunt in England? So can someone please help me understand? I need specifics....
Finally, I know there is A LOT of fear mongering out there. The quote above may just be that-- I don't know. Liberals are guilty at that as well....
Thanks
My advice would be to start reading some international news sources like the BBC, the Economist, Der Spiegel, etc... and then draw some conclusions about the differences between the US and European countries. There's a lot of differences between European countries and how they approach civil liberties and rights. And this is most definitely not the place to learn about them.
This is my first time at the political forum so please bear with me. I'm asking this question to learn because as of now ive lived a shelter life when it comes to happenings around the globe.
One thing I'm interested in is I always hear conservatives say "vote for us-- keep your freedoms... otherwise we will end up like Western Europe". I then go read an article or look at the news on line and it would appear most people from England, France, Spain, Germany, etc are "free". They go to work, school, have families-- doesn't seem much different than what we do here in the states. So what freedoms do Americans have that folks in those other countries don't? I know guns is one-- but they still hunt in England? So can someone please help me understand? I need specifics....
Finally, I know there is A LOT of fear mongering out there. The quote above may just be that-- I don't know. Liberals are guilty at that as well....
Thanks
Here is an interesting article that explains the European ideology and the American ideology what freedom means. Sadly, the vision of freedom and liberty of the Framers of the Constitution and authors of the Declaration of Independence have been chipped away by the infiltration of European ideology, that much of what is meant by liberty and freedom today is seen as "extremist" and called hateful or called "code words" for racism or disgust of the poor. None of that is true of course, but that thinking has led the US to become a welfare state much like Europe and has also resulted in the reduction of freedom in return for "fairness."
My advice would be to start reading some international news sources like the BBC, the Economist, Der Spiegel, etc... and then draw some conclusions about the differences between the US and European countries. There's a lot of differences between European countries and how they approach civil liberties and rights. And this is most definitely not the place to learn about them.
I agree that this IS NOT the place to learn about the differences since city data tends to lean to the right.
Socialism is the biggest difference. Some things are better over in Europe but give me the good old USA. We have freedoms here and life is generally easy. I know people who have immigrated from Ireland and they will all agree that America really is the land of opportunity.
In December we met with a friend who was visiting from France and she complained about the high income tax rate there but she was happy that she just had the last few years off from work PAID to raise her baby. She will be heading back to work soon. It is terrific that she had so much maternity leave but someone has to pay for it.
Back after september 11th 2001 we visited France and brought a Tshirt to the same woman above and the shirt had a small American flag on it and she said that she couldn't wear it. If you remember after the terrorist attacks on 9/11 our whole country wanted revenge but not so in France. There was a real anti american / hate the war mongers Bush and Cheney vibe going on there.
That really struck me as a huge difference in our countries. America was ambushed and in return we struck back. IN France I guess they would not have since they didn't approve.
look at what was going on in the British parliament last week, they all got up one by one and denounced Trump and stopped short of a vote to ban him from the country.
Trump tells it like it is and his ideas are very popular but in England he is despicable.
Europe is a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there.
My advice would be to start reading some international news sources like the BBC, the Economist, Der Spiegel, etc... and then draw some conclusions about the differences between the US and European countries. There's a lot of differences between European countries and how they approach civil liberties and rights. And this is most definitely not the place to learn about them.
I wouldn't necessarily agree with the bolded portion.
It would definitely be a good idea to read international news, but you could start getting some ideas from responses in this thread. Then once you have done some reading on your own and start applying critical thinking skills, the combination will reveal which posters, on these forums, are more full of it than the rest.
I think freedoms were infringed when individual countries lost their sovereignty to the European Union.
The US is still sovereign, but there is something called the North American Union developing. Look it up and see who's behind it (Cruz and his wife in particular).
An old Chief Petty Officer I worked with stated the differences pretty well.
It's an attitude.
He pointed out that in Europe, the general attitude is: That which is not expressly permitted is prohibited
but in the US: That which is not expressly prohibited is permitted.
So we are dealing with entirely different rule books, most of the time.
An old Chief Petty Officer I worked with stated the differences pretty well.
It's an attitude.
He pointed out that in Europe, the general attitude is: That which is not expressly permitted is prohibited
but in the US: That which is not expressly prohibited is permitted.
So we are dealing with entirely different rule books, most of the time.
In my opinion it's "Freedom From" vs "Freedom To". I have numerous European friends (both in work and home life). They truly believe their governments should care for them from birth to death - a freedom from need..... and of course they pay for it in many different forms
The U.S. has been historically been the opposite. A person is expected to basically take care of themselves and really not to expect much from the government - it's small and stays out of the way...... but of course in the last few decades that has changed.
I prefer the U.S. model and would use the term liberty in stead of freedom......
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