^ i know it's hard to capture in an internet-friendly sentence or two, but thinking about daily live, people going about their business day to day, how free do you think australians feel? how much do you think this 'lack of freedom' actually impacts people? when was the last time you were unable to do something that you wanted to do freely?
alasdair
I think they feel plenty free, as well as smugly superior to, pretty much everyone else on earth.
I on the other hand do not, for one, unlike the continued comments of the Australians here, I don't need to be interested myself to be pissed off on behalf of the people who are interested but can't pursue their hobbies as a matter of principle. But if you want one where I am unable to do something that I wanted to do so freely. I want something to defend myself. Fuck, forget guns, how bout just pepper spray or something. I'm a female living in a dangerous area, putting aside the general levels of crime, rapes and break in's, you know, the usual stuff...
In the 5 years of living in this area... here are some highlights of how safe it is.. all of these events happened within a 20 minute drive from where I live.
Counter terrorism officers and federal police raided a house with suspected links to a terrorist plot to behead a member of the public, I actually drove past there and saw 7 news set up their reporting in front of the house still swarming with cops, this has happened twice now in the last year, I was there on the second one.
The police had one of their accountants shot dead randomly leaving the police headquarters.
Another guy was shot dead by police in an altercation in one of the back areas of a food court I'm routinely at.
Yet another guy was stabbed to death in a murder at a real estate agent next to a shopping center I frequently go to, I went there early in the morning and again saw the media swarming a police officer for information with the whole area taped off.
And this isn't even counting in the city where I'm often at where that gunman took the entire lindt cafe hostage resulting in 2 hostages dead.
I don't think it would be surprising if a few people in this area weren't feeling particularly safe as of late. But it's ok, if a terrorist comes to cut my head off I'll blow my rape whistle at him or something. 8)
I particularly like how US drug laws and prison sentencing really bolster up this 'freest country of freedoms in the free world' argument.
Zero tolerance and mandatory sentencing is pretty free though
You seem to define freedom differently to how I do. Freedoms are what you can legally do. I'm not really talking about freedoms in the broader sense of "how free you are after you commit a crime". But in that sense...
In Australia they are just as strict with drugs. At the end of the day as long as you do not use drugs the U.S. Is a must freerer society. Ali I feel like you are paid kick back by big government lol you are so in the tank for oppressive government rule. I hope the protestors of Obama are very present at his media showing in new Jefferson later today.
No offense Jess but I think liberalism, effeminate male politicians, and females have overrun the country. It is like your country was helicopter parented by Great Britain.
Like I said you need to get back here, establish yourself, then send for your bf. Once he got here and saw freedom in action he would convert as quick as claire22 if not quicker IMO
Depends on what you mean by strict, the actual drug laws are fairly similar, but there is much greater leniency here than on average in the United States, they are right about that. Better harm reduction policies too on the whole. Unfortunately that leniency also stretches into some areas where it probably shouldn't, like rapists and murderers going free after absurdly short sentences.
Bit of trivia, funnily enough liberal has opposite connotations in Australia as to the US, the red blue politics color scheme is also reversed.
The problems not effeminate men or women (hey!), the problem is that Australia has a culture of protecting people from themselves, different views on what freedom means and rights mean, a lack of any particularly well defined rights meaning you can easily come up with rights that contradict other rights (so many times I've been told freedom of speech doesn't give me a right to express a viewpoint that might be found offensive, since it infringes the right not to be offended). And I think a general apathy when it comes to niche subjects that don't affect them. If I'm completely honest, I think Australia is probably a fine place to live... if you're Australian, or nationality with similar views.
the idea that the u.s. is the international bastion of freedom is laughable to any reasonable observer. but a lot of people who think they are 'free-thinkers' and 'objective' just parrot "'murica, #1, yeah" so often, for them it just becomes a fact.
they also go on and on and on about the importance of freedom and then shit the fucking bed if somebody wants to exercise their constitutionally-protected freedom to burn the flag, for example. they further turn a blind eye to all the truly repugnant shit the government is doing because they have a very, very selective view on what government tyranny means...
by any objective, logical measure, the u.s. ranks about 15th or 20th in the world.
of course, there are some categories in which u.s.a. is absolutely #1. stuff like:
- putting people in jail
- making new parents go back to work
- paying a ton of money for health care
- military spending
- watching tv
- having a high opinion of oneself
- superbowl wins (u.s.a. 48 - 0 rest of the world)
- world series wins (u.s.a. 110 - 0 rest of the world)
alasdair
I for one am 100% in support of peoples right to burn the flag.
Trust me, Australians have just as high an opinion of themselves as Americans do, maybe even more so. I've lived in both long enough to see it.
They also watch piles of TV only theirs is so much worse on average (granted a lot of them realize that)
They also have just as many mindless followers.
And yes, I completely agree, America's not perfect, I don't think that's in dispute here. Both countries have their good and bad sides. I don't see how that's particularly relevant to the specifics being discussed here.
One difference is Australians are so hypocritical about it. Australians do all the same shit yet still bash Americans for it. Americans on average don't even really think about Australia.
