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Originally Posted by
zft
What exactly is "freedom"? I'd argue that in many ways (i.e., pragmatic ways), European countries have more of it--certainly if you define "freedom" as the ability to do what you'd like to do (especially if what you want to do falls within the common case). Examples include the obvious ones: access to medical care/education/transportation.
How about food, clothing, heat, water, and malt whisky? You have listed 3 commodities that other people have to produce for you as examples of freedom. Do you believe that you have a "right" to other people's production?
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Europeans are even free of having the IRS follow them to every single country that they live in and continue to tax them even if they're non-resident in the USA--a privilege only oh-so-free Americans seem to enjoy.
I agree.
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Many European males even enjoy the freedom of an intact, unmutilated body: some European countries have banned the practice of male circumcision (e.g., Iceland) whereas in others it's not illegal per-se (although wide-spread support to ban it exists in many European countries), but physicians will not perform the procedure and it isn't covered by the medical system. The same can certainly not be said for America. Many of you would probably say that this is less free: there are systems in place that dictate what parents can and cannot do to their children. I would say it's more free: there are systems in place that protect your body so that you may have the freedom of being free from mutilation.
Do you believe that circumcision is mandatory in the US? If your parents listened to the doctor and had you circumcised at birth, your problem is with them, not the county hospital.
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"Freedom" shouldn't be measured by how much you and your compatriots exalt some murky concept written in the constitution--it should be measured pragmatically, and in my view, that pragmatic measurement is the ability to do what you want to do in life (and the opportunities to do so). This pragmatic measurement of freedom often has many European countries coming out ahead.
This is such bullshit. Again, do you believe that you have a "right" to other people's production/wealth/labor/time?
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The murder rate per 100,000 inhabitants in the USA was 4.96 in 2018. [1] That is--considering no other factors that would probably significantly lower this probability for you as an individual--you had a 0.00496% chance of being murdered. Over a lifetime of 80 years, your probability of being murdered is (1 - (1-4.96*10^(-5))^80)*100 = 0.4%.
This is unfortunately higher than many countries, but half a percent chance is probably not something
to go crazy over. (If you were to adjust this with information including socioeconomic status, race, location, etc, the probability would almost certainly decrease universally for members of this forum.)
In comparison, the fatality rate of COVID-19 is 168 per 100,000 inhabitants in the USA. [2] So your probability of dying from COVID-19 is roughly 34 times higher. It's awfully ironic that the attitude in this thread often amounts to "COVID-19 is a scamdemic and your probability of dying from it is essentially zero," yet the very people who are saying that then go on to say how they're buying guns and getting conceal carry permits to protect themselves:
...
where we can reasonably infer that the probability that a gun will save your life is extremely small (since your probability of being murdered is already very small). And yes--I understand your objections. People dying from COVID had pre-existing conditions; they were going to die anyway. Yada yada. That's not the point. The point is that concern over being murdered and concern from dying from COVID-19 are equally silly since the probability of either happening is small enough to not be worthwhile to attempt to minimize. There are plenty of other things that are far more probable that you can optimize instead.
It is exactly the point. There are many things you can do to keep from dying of both COVID and murder -- and car wrecks, falling off of buildings, drowning, and getting burned alive. If you are a passive participator in this little adventure, these scary numbers might apply. But that is a choice you make. I'm not going to Southside Chicago, I don't own a boat, and I do carry a gun (for reasons besides not being murdered). Everybody dies, so the things you do before that happens should be important to you. Hiding safely under your kitchen table in the safest place in the world may well be your decision. Have fun with that.
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What I'm saying is this: shut the fuck up about your "views" and "values" (which you probably only have by happenstance of being born where you were born and not somewhere else--it seems so silly to hold on to something so capricious, so vehemently), be more pragmatic, and live a local existence instead of arguing about all this bullshit that doesn't affect you anyway.
That's pretty good advice.
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Originally Posted by
Robin UK
I appear to be much calmer than you Rip judging by the language. I believe abortion and murder are highly relevant to discussions about general society freedoms, but if you haven’t got the balls to discuss it, well, I guess you haven’t got the balls to discuss it. And I can understand why.
Okay, Robin. You're the real man in the room. But the next abortion or steroids (yes, we don't talk about that either) reference gets you ushered out. I'd rather this not happen.