America (used to, at least) seems “free” because the people coming to the US are usually from even worse countries. If they were from a functional democracy, they probably wouldn’t wanna go to the US in the first place. I mean, I highly doubt a Canadian, or EU Citizen would wanna live in the US.
“We’re less shitty” just doesn’t have a ring to it.
The US had a massively growing economy for more than a century compared to other countries, and was pretty much war-free for the most part. A huge draw for people who were poor and had little hope in classist Europe. Yeah, the growing US engaged in a lot of fighting, but it wasn’t like Europe where a war with your neighboring country destroyed your food production and plunged the economy into chaos or something.
As long as you were white.
I’ll quibble over that detail a little. Immigrants that were technically white like Irish were discriminated against. Also, even if you were non-white at the time like Italian you still could have a better shot at a better quality of life than you might have had in the old country.
I mean, they were white by our modern standards but if you read writing at the time, the Irish, Italians, Greeks, etc were often not referred to or considered to be white.
The Irish were also literally fleeing a genocide.
Which I already offered the explanation that they were technically white while not darker skinned like some italians yet still prejudiced against. Ok?
Really depends on how you define “free”. Immigration is rarely spurred by people wanting more individual rights, most of the times people migrate for economic opportunities. That’s not really dependent on government type, or individual rights, it’s usually more dependent on macroeconomics, timing/opportunity, and exploitation.
America used to be more free in the libertarian sense, in which the government has less opportunities to opress you if you were from a class/race that could afford legal representation. However, corporations were/are free to opress the population to an extent that other oprresive governments would be jealous of.
I mean, for one, the internet is much less restrictive.
Much more content I can access compared to… China, where I was born.
Although, nowadays with the “age verification” stuff being proposed in many states, its kinda worrying for the future.
That is the tradeoff… The government may restrict the Internet in a more direct way in China, but similar things have happened in the US.
Advertising companies and server cost have vicariously limited the scope of what we are allowed access on the internet. Internet sites that are deemed to be un safe for advertising are removed from search engines or denied hosting. That’s happened over the course of a decade and now the government is taking a direct hand in censorship.
Soo… It’s kinda hard to say which is more free if we account for the private sector removing choice for their own benefit. We just don’t take to account what private companies do to us as removing our freedoms, even though it restricts is in more definitive ways.
Just look at healthcare in the US being used as a form of indentured servitude, where you may be gambling with your very well being if you want to change your job.
Just look at healthcare in the US being used as a form of indentured servitude, where you may be gambling with your very well being if you want to change your job.
Yes, healthcare situation sucks in the US.
But, my parents had Taishan (rural) Hukou and they worked in Guangzhou (urban-city). And they weren’t allowed to access any of Guangzhou’s benefits (in which there weren’t even much of at the time). I was born in Guangzhou, but I was not legally considered a 广州人, my Hukou Location is inherited from parents, Taishan. Its very ironic that its practically impossible to change the Hukou to Guangzhou, meanwhile its easier to obtain foreign citizenship. I wasn’t allowed in Guangzhou’s public schools. (many migrant parents paid out of pocket for privately-run schools that’s inferior to the public schools) Literally a whole population of second-class residents. You can have family live in Guangzhou for generations, but it doesn’t matter, you are never really part of them, legally speaking. Often times, children get left behind in their village while the parents worked in the city. see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-behind_children_in_China
People moved to the US because, prior to 2025 at least, it used to be much easier than places like Europe, for example. I mean, some people already have relatives here in the US, much easier to acclimate.
Well no, but you can imagine what it’d be like, amiright?
It was free, before Columbus arrived.
Was it? The first European settlers found native villages that were surrounded by palisades. There was plenty of conflict before the Europeans got there.
If you look at the various conflicts between 1600 and 1900 or so, you’ll see it’s always some European group with a list of Native groups supporting them vs. some other European group with their own different set of Native groups.
Are you saying some tribes having a fight over some land is similar to the genocide?
Of course not. In the same sense that you were not romanticizing the war between empires. The Incas for example were able to dominate a lot of land. The greed was there. To understand we are humans, we need to admit even the parts that put us to shame. Only from recognizing shortcomings we can build something better. And it’s not like humans are always greedy, survival of the strongest, yada yada. That’s an oversimplification that some build over this fact (it’s their agenda.), that we are not perfect. But it’s not an essentialism, we can be better.
Anyway, sorry I ended up ranting off topic. Glad to share.
Did Columbus ever go to what is now the USA?
It was the land of the free before a moment in history where this guy found the americas which resulted in mass genocide of a giant continent. He may not have been in what is now known as the USA but his discovery sure was the start of the end of the free world. But at least US Americans are still free to celebrate the genocide their ancestors committed during Thanksgiving while their tax dollars go to weapons sent to be used in the current genocide in Gaza.
He might have gone to Puerto Rico
They kind of let us LARP for a bunch of years.
Yeah, if you were white, cis, and hetero.
Yeah, if you were white, cis, and hetero and healthy and born to comfortably well off parents.
Def white, cis, hetero.
I think you could still get away with being just above food-stamp levels of poor in the 70’s-00’s and get to LARP as if you had rights.
Land of “Free Willy,” maybe.
Also no.
me and lady liberty got.it.onnnn.
Land of the trees and home of the knave
Hey, the USA is a form of evil, terrorises smaller countries into submission while creating retaliatory fighters like Al Qaeda, and clogs the radiowaves of the world with its news and politics as if it’s the only important entity, but it commonly celebrates Arbor Day, and I think that’s pretty neat
FINE GOOD EVERYBODY BACK ON THE BUS.
Well you can imagine what it would be like if we were the land of the free at least
*No you weren’t
Removed by mod
Weren’t*
The phrase is, “didn’t use to be.” The word “weren’t” would be correct had he been responding to “I was free”, but he is responding to “I use to be free”, so “didn’t” is correct.
“You weren’t the land of the free” is much more elegant than “you didn’t used to be the land of the free”
