> It still weirds me out that people in USA are such bad neighboors

Don’t mistake single news articles for cultural norms.

Things like these are in the headlines because they’re weird, rare, and noteworthy. I assure you this situation isn’t playing out across the entire US. Stereotyping an entire massive country based on a single news story about a weird dispute between neighbors is just illogical.

This is outrage journalism. The entire purpose of the story is to make you think “that’s outrageous!” and get angry. The journalist who wrote it might have even exaggerated the situation or left out key details to make it as sensational as possible.

Don’t take the bait.

My experience in the US is that most folks' attitude about their home is that they should be able to do whatever they want, but no one around them should be able to change anything unless they like it.

America is full of people who believe in their right to be completely their own person, and that everyone else should be exactly like them as well. By force, if necessary.

"and their law so restrictive in some cases"

Note that there was no law against this.

"This coming from the country where morons want to own a gun to protect their property and all other bs excuses, it's rather comedic."

This is highly inflammatory and disrespectful language and some might see it as trolling to get us off topic.

"And she received two anonymous notes from neighbors saying they did not want to see her underwear flapping about."

This is what she says happened. There content of the note is not provided, they didn't reach out to the officials, they didn't interview neighbors.

Hanging laundry is normal in some areas of the US too. Although it might not be normal to hang it along the road in your front yard (most have it in the back yard). I'm guessing there are some legal things in Portugal that annoy you, no? That's all that's objectively and factually happened here.

Although I do disagree with the use of anonymous notes and getting the government involved in petty stuff. But for every story of bad neighbors doing this, there are orders of magnitude more unreported stories of neighbors helping each other.

This has nothing to do with the law and every to do with the HOA that the people in this article from 2009 willing joined when they bought their home.

I know it's fun to hate on the USA at every given opportunity but this is less some systemic issue with the US and more a squabble between a few individuals who are violating a contract they chose to sign, and their neighbors who also signed said contract because they wanted to live in a place without laundry flapping about.

Without rules, there will be one neighbor who will start an auto repair shop on his front lawn. Another will stock pile trash. The next will have their RV blocking your view of the street etc...

> For the pic seems to be her home, her property and she can't even hang her clothes to dry.

Sure, but there's limits to what you can display on your front lawn without annoying the neighbours, no?

As per the pic in the article, she's handing her clothing in the front yard, which, even in a country where drying-by-hanging is the norm, is still considered tacky and stupid.[1]

Now, maybe she doesn't have a backyard, or maybe it doesn't have enough space, but the article didn't say so. They also pick a single quote used in the anonymous notes - "Don't want to see your underwear" (or something similar), without the rest of the anonymous note. My guess is that she has already had notes asking her to do this in the privacy of her backyard.

I wish they (or the woman herself) could have stated why it has to be the front lawn or nothing at all.

> This coming from the country where morons want to own a gun to protect their property and all other bs excuses, it's rather comedic.

[1] I'm 46 years old in said country, and I have never before in my life seen people hang their laundry on their front lawn. How common is this in Portugal?

> It still weirds me out that people in USA are such bad neighboors (and their law so restrictive in some cases).

I’m sure bad neighbors exist in Portugal.

> For the pic seems to be her home, her property and she can't even hang her clothes to dry.

The picture is literally refuting what you’re claiming? She was able to hang her clothes to dry.

When I lived in the United States, I realized that it is not a uniform country at all. Just as Europe varies greatly from one country to the next. Something that is common in New York City may be illegal or considered outrageous in Utah, or vice versa.

It's an American passtime to get involved in other people's business.

Did you know that communities in Germany have quiet time rules in force around noon? Did you know that in Germany they also have rules about when trash can be set out for collection and how that is to be done? Did you know that the rules I mentioned are enforced with equal vigor as the enforcement rigor you are "You Americans"-ing about?

The US is huge and diverse. This is just the stuff you hear about.

against a rising tide of housing associations who oppose the practice

...and which are not present everywhere in the US.

HOA owns the land, so in a HOA you only have a fractional ownership of the land through the membership in the HOA. As the result of such an arrangement you have to obey the HOA's rules.