One of the most obvious differences in freedoms is the drinking age. In the US, you cannot have alcohol if you are under 21 years of age. I’m 20 years old now, and I was able to drink beers, wine, and mixed drinks all around Europe without ever being asked for ID. How does that count as “freedom.” The insanity, though, is that I can go to Walmart and buy a rifle just like that, whereas Europe tends to have stricter laws on weapons. As a nation that has stores check if you are over 18 just for buying WD-40 (yes, I was carded at Walmart today for buying WD-40!), you’d think guns would have stricter limitations, but no. You can be trusted with high-power weapons and get shipped off to war, get married, and go in debt once you hit 18, but drinking beer is too dangerous. One claim I even heard in support of the 21 drinking age was that alcohol can damage a developing brain (which develops until you hit 21). Funny though, because a bullet in the brain is a lot worse, but you can be in the military at 18.

Another thing about Europe is a general freedom of speech and the press. The US has clear censorship on broadcast television and radio, and they get away with doing so because they don’t want things that are “obscene.” Funny, I didn’t see an asterisk anywhere in the first amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Nope, no asterisk. Yet somehow we mustn’t have anything “indecent.” Any American traveling to Europe will be shocked to see nudity on TV around midnight. But Europeans aren’t shocked at all. Kids shouldn’t be up that late, so if they see it than the parents are at fault (or just don’t care. After all, it’s just boobs). Or maybe the definition of decency is different. In the US, we glorify war. Violence doesn’t shock people here, but talk about sex and you’ve brewed up a shit-storm. In Europe, it’s the opposite. Sex is fine, it’s natural, but war and violence is frowned upon.

I’m generally amazed at how Americans think they live in the freest country in the world. They don’t realize that this country is still stuck with puritan laws and mindsets that stifle our basic freedoms of expression. Even with religion, this country barely recognizes gay marriage, let alone gay adoption, and claim grounds on this being a “christian nation.” First off, there’s the freedom of religion and separation of church and state. Next up, Catholic countries in Europe allow gay marriages and even gay adoptions. They’re not morally corrupt, they just don’t have an asterisk next to “free” like the US pretty much has.