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Comment by jernfrost | Hacker News Reader

Man the US just disgust me. Land of the free my ass. The amount of inhumane policies is just staggering. The most brutal and unjust “justice” system in the free world.

That American put up with this system is the biggest puzzle. It seems like the only freedom Americans care about is to carry a gun. Any other freedom they are cool with flushing down the toilet.

Sorry for the angry rant, I know there are lots of good and decent people in the US, but how on earth can you stand by year after year and be so chill about the inhumanity of the system?

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>The most brutal and unjust “justice” system in the free world.

I generally agree with you about the state of our criminal justice system, but I think you'll find US freedoms are a mixed bag when compared to the rest of the "free world." If you take a step back from just our criminal justice system, let's compare us to the UK. If you want to be more like them you'll need to restrict abortions to the first trimester, lose your gun rights, lose your free speech rights, lose separation of church and state, still can't vote while in prison, gay marriage is a states rights issue (not available in Northern Ireland), gain some consumer protections around privacy and returns, censor the internet, and heavily weigh immigration towards "ability" based candidates rather than "diversity."

>It seems like the only freedom Americans care about is to carry a gun.

The two rights I hear most about in the US are guns and abortion, but that's because those two are the most consistently under attack. I think free speech and privacy is going to be getting more mainstream attention soon because of what's going on in the tech industry.

Because when it comes down to it, a lot of these things are supported on a local or state level. HN is California-heavy and reflects the politics of the state (and the Bay Area specifically). As such, the prevailing opinion is likely to be that this is voter suppression/racism in action/terrible policy.

The fact of the matter is though, this is a Texas law, passed by Texan politicians, elected by Texan people, who probably on a general level consider voter fraud to be a bigger problem than voter suppression.

While other parts of the US may not like this kind of thing, they're not in a place to do anything about it. Much like if France wants to pass laws outside of the domain of the EU that Germany doesn't like, Germany can't really do much about it besides writing some news articles.

And to some degree, I'm of the opinion that things are better this way. If other states want to shit on their education systems or fail to invest in public health or (insert other policy here), they'll reap what they sow (which is probably, to some degree, exactly what they want). I'd rather that their decisions and policies by limited to themselves rather than being applied at a federal level to everyone.

While I 100% agree about the amount of inhumane policies and do not believe the US (or any other nation) are free.

It is completely untrue that the only freedoms Americans care about is guns, that seems like that because

1. The Mainstream media loves to cover it

2. Guns are a taboo or unusual Topic for many nations

3. Given the US is one of the last if not the last first world nation that has few regulations on owning Auto-Loading guns it is common for other nations to us that as a sign post to express how "backwards" the US is, and virtue signal how much "better" they are in comparison because they outlawed the evil gun

4. The US has made lots of process in the progression of liberty even in my life time. Drugs laws are beginning to loosen, More expansions on Free Speech over the protest of the "hate Speech is not free speech" people, and others

Over all there is MUCH MUCH MUCH MUCH more work to be done for the cause of liberty, but the idea that Americans only care about guns is simply incorrect or rather incomplete probably based on biased news coverage

virtue signal how much "better" they are in comparison because they outlawed the evil gun

No, it's much more common for some Americans to virtue signal how free they feel by the number and caliber of the guns they own. People in other countries don't hate guns, they just recognize their destructive potential and limit their availability on that basis. To the extent that they think they're better, it's because they have so few episodes of mass or casual murder by comparison.

The US has made lots of process in the progression of liberty even in my life time. Drugs laws are beginning to loosen,

You mean the drug laws that the US instituted in the 70s and then kept ratcheting up penalties on for a couple decades afterwards? If you were born in the 90s I realize it's hard to conceptualize variations in the law prior to that, but you should probably look into the political roots of the drug war and the economics involved in its export.

More expansions on Free Speech over the protest of the "hate Speech is not free speech" people, and others

It's odd that the people who've championed the freedom to express support for genocide under the rubric of free speech have been entirely absent from just about every other free speech cause in recent memory. You might want to broaden your scope a little bit.

>>People in other countries don't hate guns

Hate probably not, irrationally scared by an inanimate object is a better description.

>>they just recognize their destructive potential and limit their availability on that basis

Same irrational justification is used for all manner of restrictions on liberty, but my rights should not be infringed upon simply because other people do bad things that goes for all rights from free speech, to self defense, to many many many others

>>You mean the drug laws that the US instituted in the 70s and then kept ratcheting up penalties on for a couple decades afterwards?

History of Drugs laws go back far further than just the 70s

>>If you were born in the 90s I realize it's hard to conceptualize variations in the law prior to that

I was not, I predate the 90's by a good margin, and I also know a good deal about American History from our inception. But please continue to try to educate me, I love when people make themselves look foolish saves me the trouble

>>It's odd that the people who've championed the freedom to express support for genocide under the rubric of free speech have been entirely absent from just about every other free speech cause in recent memory. You might want to broaden your scope a little bit

Given you do not know me, or what issues have I have or have not supported it is highly unlikely you know if I was "absent from just about every other free speech cause in recent memory" it is likely I was not given I am a Philosophical Left-Libertarian that values individual liberty over all else including what is best for "society" and I largely reject all forms of collectivism and "the greater good" which is often used as the basis for the suppression of speech and individual liberty

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