1. She has dual French/US citizenship, says so in her Bio. Not sure what "Central America" has to do with anything. A lot of US citizens renounce their citizenship because of the insane tax requirements. But of course the US also makes renouncing very hard, for example taxing you on unrealized profits. It's a mess.
2. You find the article "naive"? How much experience do you have living outside the US, if I may enquire, for example in Europe?
3. Freedom of speech is actually quite comparable, and in many ways better, as for example corporations are prevented from denying your freedom of speech. The limitations the US corp. I worked for recently tried to put on employees were laughably illegal in Germany. Yes, we are a bit down on Nazi symbols. Can you guess why?
4. I would like to see what happens to you in the US if you give the middle finger to a police officer. Can you assert your 1st amendment rights from the grave?
5. "The first and second amendments of the U.S. are unlike very few In the world." Actually the first is pretty common, with very slight alterations. The second is uniquely US-American and, surprise, the US is a uniquely violent and deadly place.
6. Statistically, you are about 10x more likely to get shot in the US than you are in a Western European country. And at least 4x more likely to get killed in a homicide. So no, the violence in the US is not made up by the media, it is a statistical fact.
7. Whereas the much publicized terror attacks in Europe are exactly what you claim for the US, a statistical blip. They are only noticeable because (a) those countries are so much less violent overall and (b) media coverage of anything that can be counted as "terror" is of the charts.
8. Not sure what you mean with "one of the worst gun massacres". The Charles Hebdo attack? Sorry, that doesn't even crack the US top 10, and is not even a day's worth of gun homicides in the US.
1. I didn't see her dual citizenship status. I'll hazard a guess that she's using her U.S. passport though. I mentioned central America because she mentioned Honduras, among other places before settling in Europe at some point.. It's my understanding that one of the benefits of the new tax code abomination recently signed was making it less painful to renounce citizenship tax free. I'll wager that she won't though..
2. I've lived in Germany for 8 years, Czech republic for 3, and a few shorter stints in several other countries. That experience or lack thereof doesn't preclude one from being able to make sound judgments or understand people. I find that people who tend to sandbox someone in like that usually have a deference to authority or to the "experts".
3. The only speech that needs protecting is hate and offensive speech. If you don't protect that, why bother with anything else, your safe so long as you don't commit a thoughtcrime..
4. I do think police brutality is starting to become an issue in the U.S. and it's unfortunate because groups like antifa and BLM distract from a very real issue that for many years, exacerbated under Bush, put on steroids under Obama, and I can't imagine Cheeto Jesus actually helping this problem. When you train cops like marines, dress them as marines, give them MRAPS and other equipment from the wars in the middle East, I'm not sure how ppl can believe they won't act as marines. On top of that, add in things like civil asset forfeiture and there are problems. That being said, I can tell you I've seen what the Polezei do if your simply under suspicion, or if you make some mistake. I've literally seen them handcuff someone and wail on them with that baton before taking them to jail for very little. And unlike the U.S., you're generally not suing them to get fair recourse, you shut your face, literally. However, in general, compared to some places, you can and for the most part do live your day to day life without being taxed by the police.
5- again. It's not a problem for you, you seem to be ok with whatever speech they have assigned to you. You think US is a uniquely violent and deadly place, how many countries have you lived in, because I can assure you, you don't say that after actually spending time in someplace that's truly violent and deadly.. Ignorance is bliss I suppose, try living Mexico or Pakistan for a few months. You'll literally worry about the police as much as much as you do about being taken for ransom monies. Wonderful ppl though..
The truth of it is we should probably ban cars if we are really serious about saving innocent life
Data is data, it says whatever you make it say.. statistically what they want to say.. Analysts invoke ahh number of methods to statistically say what they want their intended audience wants to hear. Which I find most silly, because people tend to hear What they want regardless of what's actually said..
7- I'm not even sure what this means. But I can clearly see your doing the same thing that you're accusing me of. I used to love living in Germany, and still do (I'd give anything for a good doner kebop). But I always noticed a widespread disdain for the Turks among my German friends though. To me it seemed quite foolish and something I was never really able to wrap my head around. But as I traveled even more, I realized, that most of western Europe is quite homogenous in its race and ideas. I think this sets the U.S. apart even further, and you can see many issues that are coming to head in Europe denote the ethnic shifts in the countries. You can say what you like, I can read as well.
8- those are different instances, as I said. My point with the Hebdo attack was that it actually didn't happen.. The firearms allegedly used are banned there. How could it possibly occur if it isn't actually possible because they didn't have the firearms, it was literally fake news......... /sarc
The worst attack did occur in Europe, in recent history anyway. Feel free to look it up...
The U.S. is changing. for better and for worse. We might be far more ethnically diverse, but we have far less diversity of thought now, that is really to its detriment I believe. And, as they implied in that podcast, more and more politics and govt is becoming the religion and the god for those without any belief system, and that is a dangerous path, that's what I see historically anyway. Who knows. It's 2018, maybe that's all silly stuff from the past.
In 1. you wrote "I didn't see her dual citizenship status. I'll hazard a guess that she's using her U.S. passport though."
She got her French citizenship in 2015, and according to the article visited the US in 2017. US citizens are required to enter the US under a US passport. Therefore yes, you are almost certainly correct that she is using her US passport, at the very least to visit the US. Otherwise, there appears to be no need for her to use it.
But .. so what? Would you change your mind if she did renounce US citizenship? And if so, why, and by how much?
She mentioned Honduras because after visiting there for a work-related trip she decided she wanted to experience living in another culture. There was nothing otherwise special about Honduras - to use your phrasing, I'll hazard that had she instead been in Germany or the Czech Republic she would have had the same thoughts.
She chose to first go to Guadeloupe, which is part of the EU, and then "the Caribbean and Latin America."
In 3 you commented about US protections on government interference in free speech. In 2, however, markoman pointed out that US companies expect to be able to control employee speech which is "laughably illegal" German.
The threat of being fired, while not the same as being jailed, still has a chilling effect on free speech. The more so in a place like the US where the socialized "safety net" is rather weaker than in Germany.
5. "with whatever speech they have assigned to you" .. I believe the prohibitions on Nazi symbols in Germany was partially based on restrictions to free speech imposed by the Allied powers, including the US.
Note that some speech - I'm thinking of speech which is the US is classified as obscene - is more free in Germany than in the US.
7. I don't understand your transition from terror attacks to German discrimination against Turks. Yes, it's there. So what? How does that indicate something which sets the US apart, given the long history of 'disdain' in the US towards blacks, Native Americans, and Hispanics - discrimination which exists to this day, though no longer enshrined in the legal code.
You write most of Western Europe is "quite homogenous in its race and ideas"?
Could you define "race"? Does it mean something other than "has white skin"? Eg, the traditional US viewpoint was that southern Italians were a different race than northern Italians, the English were convinced of the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race, and of course there's also the Teutonic race, as in "The realm of France, it is well known, was divided betwixt the Norman and Teutonic race" from Ivanhoe.
I don't understand why you think that Western Europe is more homogeneous in its ideas than the US. That is, don't Western European also think Americans are also homogeneous? Could you explain how you came to this conclusion?
Going back to your earlier comment concerning "tyranny of socialized govt", hasn't the US been a socialized government since the New Deal? I can easily find many people making that claim, and I think they are right. (I don't think that's a bad thing either.) Or are you saying that that the US is( socialized, but it isn't* tyrannical about its socialized government, while other European countries are?
1. She has dual French/US citizenship, says so in her Bio. Not sure what "Central America" has to do with anything. A lot of US citizens renounce their citizenship because of the insane tax requirements. But of course the US also makes renouncing very hard, for example taxing you on unrealized profits. It's a mess.
2. You find the article "naive"? How much experience do you have living outside the US, if I may enquire, for example in Europe?
3. Freedom of speech is actually quite comparable, and in many ways better, as for example corporations are prevented from denying your freedom of speech. The limitations the US corp. I worked for recently tried to put on employees were laughably illegal in Germany. Yes, we are a bit down on Nazi symbols. Can you guess why?
4. I would like to see what happens to you in the US if you give the middle finger to a police officer. Can you assert your 1st amendment rights from the grave?
5. "The first and second amendments of the U.S. are unlike very few In the world." Actually the first is pretty common, with very slight alterations. The second is uniquely US-American and, surprise, the US is a uniquely violent and deadly place.
6. Statistically, you are about 10x more likely to get shot in the US than you are in a Western European country. And at least 4x more likely to get killed in a homicide. So no, the violence in the US is not made up by the media, it is a statistical fact.
7. Whereas the much publicized terror attacks in Europe are exactly what you claim for the US, a statistical blip. They are only noticeable because (a) those countries are so much less violent overall and (b) media coverage of anything that can be counted as "terror" is of the charts.
8. Not sure what you mean with "one of the worst gun massacres". The Charles Hebdo attack? Sorry, that doesn't even crack the US top 10, and is not even a day's worth of gun homicides in the US.