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Comment by quadrifoliate | Hacker News Reader

As an American, it is hard for me to properly grasp the fact that the UK almost seems closer to Saudi Arabia than the US in this regard.

It does not seem like having a "fuck imperialism" sign should ever get you arrested in a country that is supposedly one of the closest allies of the US.

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Yeah, nothing like being arrested _and sentenced to four years in prison_ for talking to a cop while being black, in the land of the free, where this would NEVER happen because of some often-invoked 1st amendment.

https://www.npr.org/2022/09/06/1121322520/a-black-protester-...

It was not my intention to say, for instance, that the US is not deeply racist; which is central to the case you quoted. It's likely far more so than the UK.

But the principle of freedom of speech seems generally more accepted, which is why Brittany Martin's case would be recognized by most Americans here for the racist outrage that it is. On the other hand, you have UK people elsewhere in the thread shrugging "yeah, that's a law" [1]), which is what was surprising to me.

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[1] An example: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32817744

But it very clearly is not. Quite the opposite is upheld by a court.

Of course, unless, by ‘principle’ you mean ‘only under certain conditions, sometimes, for some things to be said, by some people, to some specific set of people, YMMV’, in which case I fail to see the difference to the UK (or Saudi Arabia, for that matter). You also have that complete principle of freedom to praise the prince in SA.

The US had a revolution from King George III and created a Constitution with 10 Amendments in order to guard against this exact type of behaviour from the government. Discussion on the subject of the people's rights independent of their government isn't widely held today. Maybe that should change.

I'm kinda puzzled. I know the US is wide and there's many pockets of everything, but in so many ways the US seems more religious and actively putting it into laws than the UK.

Digging far away, only the US tried to ban alcohol consumption, an angle only islamic countries are also interested in as far as I know. Looking back only a few weeks ago, abortion protection has been abolished nation wide. To only take super salient points.

I thought Iceland also had a prohibition on alcohol. Beer was still prohibited until 1989 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibition_in_Iceland

The US banned alcohol because at the time we consumed an absolutely HUGE amount and it was causing all kinds of social ills like wife-beating and child neglect.

The US does have wide protections for really really objectionable speech still. See snyder v phelps

That's part of why the USA got created in the first place. Some people were discriminated against and/or locked in the Tower of London for inconveniencing the King or the establishment. Some of these people moved over and colonized the New World and achieved independence from the British Empire. That's also part of why the UK are your closest allies. Cultural heritage.

> It does not seem like having a "fuck imperialism" sign should ever get you arrested in a country that is supposedly one of the closest allies of the US.

Hmmmm... /s?

> Hmmmm... /s?

Okay, fair point – I missed the fact that SA is also currently a somewhat key US ally.

But you know what I mean, hopefully. The UK has typically been close enough socially and politically that the term "Special Relationship" has its own Wikipedia page [1].

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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Relationship

Saudi royalty killed a US journalist, violating much more clear-cut free speech principles than this (still bad) state-enforced decorum stuff.

And, you know, the fact your country does do the "jail for opinions" thing too

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