• albert180@piefed.social
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        3 days ago

        You can drink an open container of alcohol outside. You can legally be outside without Money on you, you can be safe outside without worrying of being shot. All basic necessities of Life are cared for. You don’t have to worry of starving, being homeless, or having a health condition that doesn’t get cared for.

        Modern Europe has always been free

        • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          Modern day Europe for sure. No argument there. Europe was also the stage for some of the most oppressive regimes and largest wars in history.

          I’m not a delusional American who thinks highly of his nation either. We’ve had systemic oppression and elitist corruption since our inception. The only reason they allow us the “freedom” to use hate speech is to fuel the machine that powers our social division.

        • IncogCyberspaceUser@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          I’m not really arguing that we have a lot of freedom here.
          A small counterpoint would be that in a few countries they’re pretty strict about having to carry personal identification at all times in public.

    • thedarkfly@feddit.nl
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      3 days ago

      The last dictatorship in Western Europe was 50 years ago. Eastern Europe was between 35 years ago and today.

      • Saleh@feddit.org
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        2 days ago

        Germany is not Eastern Europe. The GDR ended 35 years ago. Geographically the center of Europe is somewhere around Eastern Poland, Belarus, Ukraine or Western Russia depending on the method used.

        • thedarkfly@feddit.nl
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          2 days ago

          Yep, we agree. In Western Europe I was thinking of Portugal and Eastern Europe the Baltics etc.

          E: and the current ones are Russia and Belarus

          • Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            2 days ago

            FYI, Spain’s dictatorship lasted for another 2 years after the one in Portugal fell.

            Also in my experience both Spain and Portugal tend to be tought of as Southern Europe, even though geographically they are indeed to the West of almost all of Europe (Iceland is further to the West, whilst the Republic of Ireland and Great Britain are at around the same longitude)

    • rumschlumpel@feddit.org
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      3 days ago

      Depends on what you define as “Europe”. Soviet Russia, its satellite states and Franco Spain weren’t really more free than the USA, even while they were legally segregating races in the south. EU was definitely more free from the start, though.