Southern US states are freer than UK

@SunshineGirl When I am writing reasons the UK is not a free country, the monarchy is going to be one of them. Socialist dictatorships arise in countries that are not free. Assuming that socialism cannot coexist with a monarchy is to believe that socialism is good, and that freedom matters in socialist countries. UK governments are irrelevant, and it does not matter which party leads. Are Conservatives really any different to Labor? British democracy is a lie.

Freedom has never mattered in socialism. I believe that freedom is found through God; we find it in ourselves, through our families, and through our creator. Royals live with wealth and privilege, and so do socialists. Socialism was conceived by the educated middle class, by people with money. Keir Starmer is a man with money and he is driven by personal gain and his socialist ideology.

@SW-User
So who is the authoritarian now? 🤔

The choice of government is extremely important if, like me, you were not able to marry for love and form a family of your own up until just 10 years ago. Funnily enough I do feel quite personally free in 2024 . . bar sporadic outbreaks of xenophobic violence 🙂

The UK's biggest mistake is when they finally overthrew their monarchy, they didn't get them all...

should've put anyone claiming "royalty" to the axe...

@SW-User After Thatcher britian has hardly been socialist the opposite infact.

@Spotpot What is socialism to you?

@SW-User I feel free because I know my country's recent history and I know if I had been born 20 years earlier my life as a homosexual would have been considerably more difficult. I am indebted to the efforts of those who have gone before me and were not so fortunate.

My father was addicted to alcohol and gambling. He died prematurely while wandering along a railway track in west London. Both my parents were on active service in the Royal Navy while I was growing up. I and my sisters spent most of our childhoods in a state boarding school. We had an excellent education, but very little private family life.

I am the daughter of a Polish immigrant. My grandfather fought for Britain in WWII. My mother served for 22 years as a nurse for the Royal Navy. Despite this I still get singled out if I use my mother's family name or my full first name. I am however white so I can usually go incognito, unlike Asian or African immigrants in our country.

I was on holiday in Liverpool when three little girls were stabbed in nearby Stockport and a wave of rioting was sparked by online speculation and cynical lies. I spent the rest of the week mildly terrified about my teenage daughter's safety (she was attending a nearby gymnastics camp) and riots which were going on in the same city. I can assure you I did not imagine or misunderstand the scale of the violence.

@SW-User The UK is currently in a phase of neoliberalism not socialism.

@SunshineGirl I am sorry to hear about your father.

You said: “I am the daughter of a Polish immigrant. My grandfather fought for Britain in WWII. My mother served for 22 years as a nurse for the Royal Navy. Despite this I still get singled out if I use my mother's family name or my full first name. I am however white so I can usually go incognito, unlike Asian or African immigrants in our country.”

Are you sure you are being singled out? Maybe they are just asking you about your surname. Would a Polish person not ask why someone born in their country has a British instead of Polish surname? People wonder about me. It can be controversial to say you are Russian. I look different, so they normally assume I am something else. They can get their heads around Spanish or Israeli, but not Russian. I have had people insist I am Spanish or Israeli after they learn of my connections to these places. I said to a former colleague “I'm not Spanish” dozens of times. She said “but where did you get your tan? You're from Spain!” It is confusing, to feel like you belong nowhere. I also get asked if I'm Asian, Muslim.

No one can go incognito…black, brown, and white. We are always curious about one another. I do not think it is unusual for natives to be curious when others turn up in their lands. Are they being hateful and racist? Not in my view.

“I was on holiday in Liverpool when three little girls were stabbed in nearby Stockport and a wave of rioting was sparked by online speculation and cynical lies.”

What was done to these little girls is pure evil; it should never happen. It is human nature to speculate when tragic events occur, when devastating and shocking events occur. Are we going to make being human illegal? Should people be arrested, charged, and imprisoned for talking? These riots may have been upsetting to some, but no one should be put in a cell for making a comment or posting a meme online. “Incitement” is what the government and the judges say when they want to dictate our language and suppress our natural right to be human.

@SW-User A lie is a lie. If that misinformation were used to make financial or other personal gain and the originator of the lie was sued for fraud, no one would bat an eyelid. If the lie caused an individual reputational loss and they had the means to sue for libel, again no one would think this particularly remarkable. Why then when the lie intereferes with the freedoms of a larger group of people who are less easily able to seek legal redress is this seen as a freedom of speech issue? The government is defending the rights of minorities against the tyranny of the majority, which is what any legitimate democratic government should be doing.

@SunshineGirl “A lie is a lie.”

So? Is the implication here that we should be imprisoned for lies? What if the person making these comments or reposting this information believes it at the time?

“If that misinformation were used to make financial or other personal gain and the originator of the lie was sued for fraud, no one would bat an eyelid. If the lie caused an individual reputational loss and they had the means to sue for libel, again no one would think this particularly remarkable.”

These are very different. When people sue for libel, the individual they are suing probably intended to cause them reputational harm. They may have planned it out of malice, or they are looking for monetary gain. Individual relationships have been policed and subject to various laws for some time now, whether they be romantic relationships, professional relationships, relationships between news media and famous people, and so on. We can discern what is going on in this much smaller environment with more intimate relationships. Intent can be seen. It is normally about one person, not an issue affecting millions. The term misinformation ought not be applied to these cases. Why do you do that?

Humans will and always have speculated on matters of interest to them, and this is very common when the event is a horrifying one. People have been sentenced to time in prison for making or reposting speculations online. The consequences of what people talk about are very varied, and you cannot single out one person or small group and say they are responsible for x event occurring. Are they organizing it or leading it? If not, why should they be held responsible and punished? We should all have the right to say as we please about events occurring in our country and in other countries.

“The government is defending the rights of minorities against the tyranny of the majority, which is what any legitimate democratic government should be doing.”

This is a gross mischaraterization of what is happening. Why do you distort the reality? Do you really believe what you are saying?

If you are for freedom and tolerance, why do you think the answer to our problem is prison time for exercising speech, and more laws? More laws mean less freedom, and if you support less freedom, you are not tolerant. The groups you have in mind are already protected as police are there to stop any physical attacks against them.

All governments are essentially either Representative or Dictatorships. Any specific government/subtype is just a variation of those themes (mostly who hold the power and how much)

Monarchies, Socialism, Communism, etc. may all sound different in theory, but in practice, there's little difference.

@SW-User
People who spread misinformation that leads directly to harm or loss should of course be held criminally responsible for their actions. It is exactly the same principle as libel or slander. Millions of £s of damage was caused in the riots. Peoples' livelihoods were destroyed. Places of worship were attacked. Individual freedoms were violated by those practising or threatening violence.

@wildbill83
If you are low paid, homeless, sick, disabled, or otherwise dependent upon services provided by the state, I can tell you that there is a world of difference. This is real life, not political theory.

@SunshineGirl There is no “directly” here. Any impact was indirect, and that is being generous. If people are going to engage in violence, which we have been doing since we ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they will do it regardless of what others are saying on their private social media. They in all likelihood cannot even see or gain access to what others are posting. I thought we were supposed to be responsible for our actions? Can you really blame a person who posted or reposted a status update or meme on their facebook for all the violence taking place?

The middle aged love facebook, it is like their toy. We shouldn't deny them the right to say what they want on it. They should be allowed to express how they feel. Likewise, young men should be able to go out and shout at police if they want to.

“Peoples' livelihoods were destroyed.”

This is an exaggeration.

“Individual freedoms were violated by those practising or threatening violence.”

That's your view. If it is true, it's still not the fault of those using their phone or computer to make silly posts on social media. It has nothing to do with them.

To wildbill83, you said: “if you are low paid, homeless, sick, disabled, or otherwise dependent upon services provided by the state, I can tell you that there is a world of difference. This is real life, not political theory.”

Why is anyone homeless? Where are their families? If you encourage the family instead of undermining it and tearing it apart, you would have less homeless. I would never let my child be homeless. My children are my responsibility and that does not end when they are 18. Where are the families of the sick and disabled? Why can't we be supported by our family and community instead of the fascist state?

I can say that the groups you mention would probably have more funds were it not for the massive amount of resources spent on immigration and supporting migrants. Between 2022 and 2023, £4 billion alone was spent on operating your asylum system.