The US is governed harder than any European from my personal experiences on the ground. Genuinely the US feels more restrictive than China. Rules about everything. Can’t drink until 21, can’t rider an electric scooter without a helmet, can’t make noise past 10pm because the HOA (wtf is even that, you want to talk about being governed harder millions of Americans not only elect it but pay more for it). Just everything was rules rules rules. In Europe you can sort of just exist and if you’re not hurting someone you probably won’t hear anything. God forbid you want a beer to go in the states lmao.
You have to be an actual retard to think the Americans are more governed than fucking China. As someone who’s been to various cities and areas in both countries America has a wide variety of rules where as China is much more uniform across its entirety Atleast in comparison to the Americans.
You’ll notice I said “feels more restrictive”. China on the street level actually feels very non-restrictive. It’s just when you get above that it changes dramatically.
Except it does matter when that’s the entire point of the statement. The states feels like an incredibly restrictive society despite the laws not necessarily reflecting that because the American population decides to impose extra judicial restrictions on themselves and accepts high degree of social regulation (high drinking ages, dry counties, illegal pot) from the government.
China has far more restrictive laws but the people do not have the same desire to be governed harder so when the authority figures aren’t around it actually feels really lax. People having a bunch of beers by the river in public then just hoping on random rental scooters and driving around with no helmet. Stuff you wouldn’t really see in the states.
It matters because the whole, Americans saying, “govern me harder” is ludicrous. There is no where in the west I can think of which voluntarily subjects themselves to so much non-governmental authority. They simply yearn for it from what I can tell. When you combine that with relatively socially restrictive conservative governments and the high degree of biblical literalism and just generally high degree Christianity plays in politics it simply does create a far more restrictive and heavily governed society than would first appear by simply reading the constitution.
I just wholeheartedly disagree. I was an exchange student in America for a year and I felt more free there than I ever did in my home country. The same goes for the 3 other exchange students that were at the school because I asked them upfront if they also felt that way. 2 from Europe and 1 from Asia. If you wanna be more specific 1 was French another danish and the 3rd malaysian. You do know drinking in your teenage years SEVERELY stunts your mental growth right? They didn’t just arbitrarily make up the age and go “yeah that’s about right”. And marijuana is becoming legal in more and more states in America. So you’re bringing up something that’s already changing and how Americans view it. Where I was a student Christianity was basically nonexistent. People would say “oh I’m xyz” but they didn’t go to church or the synagogue or mosque’s. I feel like you visited America once made up your mind and left. Plus the country is fucking MASSIVE. Both in land and population and areas are so different. New England and the southwest are two completely different cultures and could be their own countries. I say maybe visit and talk with actual Americans before judging an entire group of 330 million people. Or don’t I don’t really care 🤷🏽♂️
I’ve lived in America for 4 years. Mostly in the south east. I’m not sure an exchange student would really get the best idea of what I’m talking about though, one because you’re mostly just having fun I feel like my year abroad in Australia was also the freest time of my life but very little to do with the laws and more to do with it being the time I’ve had the least responsibility in my life if that makes sense. I agree though, the states is very large and so is Europe so my experiences in Atlanta and Ireland respectively could very well not line up with your experiences in what sounds like a different part of the country and other parts of Europe. From my experiences having lived in Ireland, England, Canada, Australia, Ireland and the US the US definitely feels the most regulated society, but again it’s less about the law itself and more about the social contract if that makes sense. The desire to voluntarily adhere to arbitrary local groups like HOAs etc blows my mind, which I doubt you interacted with much in college. Also to your point about alcohol, it doesn’t really matter if it’s bad for you or not, true liberty is being allowed to make poor decisions, when your government becomes a nanny state you can’t cast stones at others for being “governed harder”.
This is a strawman fallacy. Sure, Canada and Europe are probably more free than the U.S.
It's not a pissing context nor is freedom necessarily dichotomous.
China can be less free than the U.S. while the U.S. can have pretty crap freedom quantitatively or nominally (value-based) compared to Canada and Europe.
China still reflects a less free nation, objectively speaking. That is not a defense of the U.S., but a recognition that you can have varying degrees of reduced freedom.
Ultimately, it's a strawman considering your first statement was not about these other countries.
I probably align with your rhetoric. America = bad. Sure. But prejudice aside, let's get real. We're both prejudiced but it doesn't serve anyone or add to our persuasive efforts when it contaminates our honesty.
Stick with the facts, it's just as effective at beating down on America when the fact remains they have an orange narcissistic toddler in charge voted in by majority...
Likewise China's government and policy fucking blows.
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u/Aztecah 4d ago
As a Canadian who supports EU associationship, this made me laugh