It's amusing that Americans constantly compare themselves to Russia, China and North Korea.
Are you actually proud to compare favorably to them? Is that as high as you want to set the bar? Surely there is little to be gained from continually pointing out you're better than the lowest. Aim higher.
I mean, congrats for being competitive against high school teams, but man, you gotta move up into the big leagues if you are serious.
Go and learn how societies like Switzerland, Norway, Australia and France operate, and compare yourself to them. You will learn something, which will help you improve something. Comparing yourself to the bottom of the list teaches you nothing, which improves nothing
I'm not American so I'm not the "you" you're referring to in your bizarre "aim higher" lecture.
That said, the comment I was answering implied the US is an unfree country. That is simply not the case. To illustrate this, let's see how some other countries, including the ones you named, compare to the US.
Freedom House ratings[1] for selected countries (100 is best):
Switzerland: 96
Norway: 100
Australia: 98
France: 91
Canada: 99
Russia: 22
China: 16
United States: 90
So the US is roughly equivalent to France, one of the countries you named. Russia is lousy, as expected, but certainly not the worst.
But even freedoms in the liberal European states are slowly being eroded. Globally, society is moving further into the forest and only a few will be left to see the trees.
Are you actually proud to compare favorably to them? Is that as high as you want to set the bar? Surely there is little to be gained from continually pointing out you're better than the lowest. Aim higher.
I mean, congrats for being competitive against high school teams, but man, you gotta move up into the big leagues if you are serious.
Go and learn how societies like Switzerland, Norway, Australia and France operate, and compare yourself to them. You will learn something, which will help you improve something. Comparing yourself to the bottom of the list teaches you nothing, which improves nothing