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Comment by dotBen | Hacker News Reader

The UK isn't a 'free country' in the way American's use the term. It took me a few years of living in America to understand the nuance. I think the 'freedoms' Americans have raises it's own problems for society (eg guns) and there isn't a right or wrong, just different.

The joke I always like to make is that in the US everything is legal unless the government legislates to say you can't, in Europe everything is illegal unless the government legislates to say you can. :D

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> The joke I always like to make is that in the US everything is legal unless the government legislates to say you can't

Guess where the US got that from? Yes, the UK, and it still applies.

I think you're forgetting something called the CONSTITUTION which gives a number of rights that one doesn't have in the UK like

-Freedom of expression (can't be arrested for social media posts, can't easily get sued into the ground for libel[0])

-Right to bear arms (technically legal for citizens to organize their own militant force, though often discouraged)

-Right to remain silent (it is always advised to never talk to the police under any circumstances).

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPEECH_Act

As an American, I'm still often baffled by American Exceptionalism. Often people who say stuff like this have zero actual clue about how things are done in other countries. And it's laughable to call out the right to bear arms when just being suspected of having a weapon is enough to justify an execution by the police.

Especially considering the fifth amendment was specifically intended to allow for a militia to defend against the government, not to enable students to carry an automatic rifle into school—but here we are

2nd amendment, 5th is the "right to remain silent" etc.

Still, the issue with school shootings is mostly that it targets the wrong people. After school programs, community support for troubled youth, options for local service or a job placement program for kids would all be solutions, but the youth only sees other kids at school as the problem. If the system is so screwed up that a kid feels the need to take up arms to fight against it, then they should, but school shootings are unnecessarily cruel and generally fail to lead to progressive changes; more often than not they become justification for increases in the very authoritarian measures that promote the violence in the first place.

I recall the time the Japanese imprisoned the CEO of Nissan on trumped up charges and he had to smuggle himself out of the country to escape. Of course the US has Gitmo, but in general the justice system is remarkably fair compared to other countries, since its much harder to get a guilty verdict, which is why so many criminal court cases end with plea deals instead.

Good thing we don't have a history of mistreatment of Japanese nationals. We clearly have clean hands in this regard.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Japanese_America...

That sentiment originated in discussions of English common law, where it was being contrasted with European legal codes.

> in Europe everything is illegal unless the government legislates to say you can.

That doesn't seem accurate. I'm guessing you haven't lived in a country where that's much closer to reality?

> The joke I always like to make is that in the US everything is legal unless the government legislates to say you can't, in Europe everything is illegal unless the government legislates to say you can.

That's pretty good. It's a succinct contrast of the difference between a citizen and a subject.

That's the joke they made about the Soviet Union; it's inaccurate for Europe. But in Europe the government isn't afraid to make things illegal.

That's just nonsense.

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