So please tell me what is not free in the United States?
Mastertech, I'm a fellow American and about as patriotic as can be. But I'll tell you our freedoms dissapper daily. And, sadly, its not because someone has taken our freedom away - its because we collectively give it up out of apathy.
From the moment I flush the toilet in the morning to my last wakeful moment I pay some governmental agency a tax for virtually everthing I do. When I drive to work I must wear a seat belt or be subject to a fine (sure seat belts are a good idea, but a law is not). I may not smoke, even in my own car, or I'll be fined again (I gave up smoking years ago but I would still like the right to do so). If I go to Chicago I may no longer eat fois gras - its against the law. And any food with trans-fat will soon follow.
Do your remember America's disgust when the Tiananmen Square dissidents were identified and arrested because of surveillance cameras in public places. How many intersection cameras do you pass in a single day now?
Freedom of speech? We now have celebrities being forced into sensitivity training for saying something racial as if no other human being has ever had a racial thought or uttered a racial word. No, I'm not in favor of hateful speech but I laugh when I hear news casters try to quote the offending statement without themselves being forced into rehab.
I don't know how old you are but I've been around long enough to remember endless summer days with BB gun in hand, walking around town or in the woods. Nobody thought twice about it. I never did any harm or hurt anybody - it was just a guy thing for me and my friends. Now, my neighor's kids bring their paint ball gun down by the creek, set up a board, and blast away. The paint ball guns are confiscated and the parents pay a $500US fine because their kid had a "weapon" (since when is paint a weapon?). Like me, they were doing no harm, not hurting anybody. But because guns are now bad (while people's actions have no bearing) we give up that right too.
This could go on, but you get the idea.
I do think the closer a society is to the moment freedom was earned the more they appreciate and protect it. For Americans that moment is in the distant past.
Either that or has been reading to much liberal hysteria online.
I think the opposite. They are one of the biggest promoters of the erosion of our freedom.