I'm US citizen living in Canada. Americans are usually so programmed with Exceptionalism that it takes months for the brightest expats to clear the brainwashing. I was lucky enough to have very patient friends who politely explained why my "America is obviously better" was wrong.

Americans rarely pay attention to all the USA flags in all their television programming, so you must forgive them for the militant nationalism. They really don't know any better until they've lived outside their borders.

I am not a US citizen and live currently in EU.

Europe is not big on the whole freedom of speech stuff.

The US has freedom of speech, yes.

It doesn't bother making sure that you're alive to say it.

It doesn't bother making sure that you're capable of saying something worthwhile.

So, yes. You have freedom of speech. It's just that most American speech is pointless.

Compared to the terrible crimes of denying holocaust or denying communist atrocities or drawing a swastika. Or the terrible - well pretty much every law in UK (libel, knife carry, mandatory decryption).

I am an European, but we have a long way to go towards sanity. And with obesity declared a disability I feel like we are moving away from it.

The thing is that freedom of speech isn't all that important in the long run. It's important, yes, but speech is the first, tiniest baby step in a very long process towards change. To focus on it to the exclusion of all else is to no different than silencing yourself.

Indeed, having speech and naught else is like a vent that lets off steam, making change and better lives harder to come by. It is the fool's prerogative to speak his mind, but at the end of the day, the king is still a king, and the fool is still a fool.

You're rather oddly equating free speech as what makes the US "the best place on earth". Which is an odd one on an article about the US having an impaired legal system, in the UK there may be more criminal sanctions against certain speech but you'll also get very well defended in a much fairer legal system.

Take the instance of the Robin Hood Airport Twitter trial -in the US you'd be relying on a public defender to make a 1st Amendment argument - win and you're grand, lose and the American justice system would bury you as a terrorist.

There are plenty of other examples of rights offered by the US justice system that you don't get in other countries: double jeopardy, how long you can be held before being charged, etc, etc

The US might not be perfect (who is?) but it offers some of the highest levels of protection for an individuals rights of any country.