The US has certainly had its problems, like widespread racism and the red scare, sure, but this is all relative to how other countries respond to speech with legal action.
Literally all of those things did.
- Equal rights activism https://calendar.eji.org/racial-injustice/feb/1
- Communism activism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_Act_trials_of_Communist_...
And don't even get me started on Snowden and Assange exposing the tremendous (war + civilian) crimes of the US government and being silenced and persecuted for it.
> The US, from a law standpoint, has had the strongest free speech protections of almost any country in history.
Absolutely false. It's not even in top 10.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/countries...
You must be joking. Venezuela is 7th in the free speech index of that ranking.
Furthermore, you have 4 EU countries in the ranking, all higher vs USA. Those 4 EU countries are subject to ECHR, which has ruled freedom of speech does not apply :
- to protect the religious feelings of others [1]
- to restrict content that was tasteless [2]
- to say outrageous things [3]
Yet, all 3 examples above are constitutionally protected in USA. This sort of thing makes it very difficult to take the rest of your commentary at face value.
[1] https://globalfreedomofexpression.columbia.edu/cases/otto-pr...
[2] https://globalfreedomofexpression.columbia.edu/cases/leroy-v...
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perin%C3%A7ek_v._Switzerland
“Free speech” is so ambiguously defined in the US that it’s effectively meaningless.
The US has had over two centuries of ambiguously defined “free speech” rights at many different levels, any of which could be taken away depending on what state you’re in, what federal circuit you’re in, or if you’re lucky, the Supreme Court or Congress.
So why do you consider yourself free when you do not know what defines free speech?
Quite frankly, anyone tuned into history beyond the basics ought to recall that even the initial leaders of the country did not believe in free speech — Thomas Jefferson had quite illiberal views on what a free press entailed.
For a modern example, providing abortion assistance is not free speech in the state of Texas.
Try advocating for communism from the 20s-80s or for the rights of black people in the 50s/60s/into-70s.
Or say the wrong criticism in the early 2000s after 9/11. At best you get surveillance, at worst you’re dealing with FISA.
We have not had any changes to the constitution to further protect speech, either.