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On the flip-side of this, I had a close friend who traveled the world extensively for 10+ years. Last time I saw him he had visited 65 different countries, often living for months or even years in some of them. He hated coming back to the USA. He said our ideas of freedom and liberty are complete fabrications compared to a great many EU and Asian countries. He always had to add hours to his flight times when traveling through or within the US because he refused to go through the naked scanner, because he felt that they violate our individual rights and privacy. He said he didn't need to deal with those anywhere else. That's just one small example out of a list of dozens that he gave me.
Yeah, privacy wise much of the West sucks. It's not just the US. Germany spies on it's people just like the 5 Eyes (English countries). France literally just passed a law allowing cops to activate phone cameras and mics. The war against terror really took a bite out of everyones privacy.
At least we live in countries that, theoretically, we should be able to vote in reps to undo these things. Sadly we haven't seen that yet.
It was never a war on terror. It was always a war on freedom and privacy. The so called Patriot Act over here is the most unpatriotic, least constitutional piece of legislation I've ever even heard of. But yes, at least we have the freedom still to talk about it, and theoretically vote in people who could change it. Our most "liberal" president in the last 15 years chose to leave the Patriot Act in-tact, as did his conservative successor, as did our latest "liberal" president. It's almost like they don't actually represent the principles they claim to represent.
Liberal in quotes since even our liberals are pro-corporatist conservatives.