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Comment by SubiculumCode | Hacker News Reader

You are free to hate capitalism (even if you benefit from it enormously). You are free to say that you hate capitalism and the U.S. as openly and as often as you like, without facing imprisonment or worse.

But if you were in China, could you say you hate the Chinese Communist Party and China openly and as often as you like without imprisonment or worse?

We know the answer to that. So go ahead and trust China more than the U.S., but I think that is pure foolishness.

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Actually, Chinas free speech, while abysmal, is better than you're making it out to be. They only really care if they see you as a threat, which realistically isn't too far off from the US both currently and historically

I understand that there is some freedom of speech in China, but I don't think the implication is that US and China are functionally equivalent. In the U.S. you can criticize the president all day every day and have millions of followers. Could you do that in China? The more people listen to you, the more dissident opinions become a threat.

I'm not suggesting they are the same, rather, that if the US saw you as a real threat you'd be shut up pretty quickly. The threshold for what is considered a big enough threat is different, but they both have the ability to shut you up and have in the past. Any government would act the same, at least a competent one. The governments 0th priority is ensuring its continued existence, since all of the other functions rely on its existence

Can Comey?

I live in a Zionist country (the US) and will absolutely be canceled and blacklisted from my industry (tech) were I to publicly speak out against Zionism. They are attempting to put laws in place to make it illegal to be anti-Zionist. These laws already exist in countries like the UK and Germany. Some, such as anti-BDS laws, already exist in the US as well.

Many technological advances weren't driven by capitalism, early computers and the internet were literally developed by the government.

You can probably say 864#

I think you're missing their point, even if I can agree with part of your premise.

There was an outdated but relevant saying

'In America, you can criticize president Nixon anytime'

'Yes, but in Soviet Union you can also criticize Nixon anytime.'

The point is not that they're safer but that they're not a relevant concern in the same way. (According to OP)

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