My own 48 years of lived experience in the UK is not remotely like that. Honestly, the hate train for the UK
makes me wonder if my own pre-conceptions about life in the US, formed through the British media and platforms like this, is as way off the mark as you guys genuinely are in regard to what it’s actually like living here.
Don’t get me wrong, I think that most of our governments from Thatcher onwards have been various of flavours of dreadful, but from my perspective the US political landscape is the rock bottom-end to a path we’re essentially locked into as the billionaire backed psueodo-facist parties gain increasing foothold.
It is absolutely true that we both just get fed a great deal of propaganda from both sides.
And yeah USA has its own share of problems I will admit that.
But I’ve never seen a 84 year old woman get arrested in USA for speaking in an inside voice about being against a genocide.
Now sure here the cops will come and throw tear gas and maybe even kill a few people so I’m not saying that’s great. It isn’t.
But dude once you arrest old ladies for simply saying they are against the genocide of Palastenians then its over man. You don’t live in a free society.
Now in USA they use anti Israel sentiment to try and look for reasons to deport visa holders (which is messed up) but they don’t arrest citizens for saying it. I could go out on the street corner right now and talk just like that lady did about how Palestinians are being genoiceded while we do nothing and all about even how Trump and Epstein were buddies and nothing will happen to me. Nothing.
In the UK they can detain you for questioning because their face scans of you (that you can’t refuse) look like some other dude who may or may not have done a crime.
In the UK they can arrest an 84 year old Lady for just saying she is against the targeted killing of an entire ethnicity of people and nothing else.
Bro, that is insane. You realize that is insane right? I’m not saying USA isn’t insane our cops use citizens as target practice but god damn arresting old ladies for saying they don’t support what Israel is doing? That’s way more fucked up then anything going on in America.
I think you’re taking a single, disputed incident and presenting it as if it’s how the UK normally works.
I agree this video is a disgrace, but the issue wasn’t simply “an old lady was arrested for saying she opposed genocide.” The circumstances are more complicated than that, and there are ongoing legal and factual disputes about why the police intervened. Reducing it to “you get arrested in Britain for criticising Israel” isn’t an accurate description of UK law.
People in the UK publicly criticise Israel, the UK government, and the police every single day. There have been countless pro-Palestinian demonstrations involving hundreds of thousands of people. If merely saying “I oppose what Israel is doing” were grounds for arrest, our prisons would be overflowing.
The same applies to facial recognition. There are legitimate debates about police use of the technology, but saying “you can’t refuse it” or implying people are routinely detained because the computer thinks they look like someone else leaves out a lot of important legal safeguards and oversight.
The US and the UK both have genuine issues around policing and civil liberties, but it’s not helpful to compare the worst anecdote from one country with the worst anecdote from the other and then claim one is fundamentally free while the other isn’t. Reality is more nuanced than that.
My own 48 years of lived experience in the UK is not remotely like that. Honestly, the hate train for the UK makes me wonder if my own pre-conceptions about life in the US, formed through the British media and platforms like this, is as way off the mark as you guys genuinely are in regard to what it’s actually like living here.
Don’t get me wrong, I think that most of our governments from Thatcher onwards have been various of flavours of dreadful, but from my perspective the US political landscape is the rock bottom-end to a path we’re essentially locked into as the billionaire backed psueodo-facist parties gain increasing foothold.
It is absolutely true that we both just get fed a great deal of propaganda from both sides.
And yeah USA has its own share of problems I will admit that.
But I’ve never seen a 84 year old woman get arrested in USA for speaking in an inside voice about being against a genocide.
Now sure here the cops will come and throw tear gas and maybe even kill a few people so I’m not saying that’s great. It isn’t.
But dude once you arrest old ladies for simply saying they are against the genocide of Palastenians then its over man. You don’t live in a free society.
Now in USA they use anti Israel sentiment to try and look for reasons to deport visa holders (which is messed up) but they don’t arrest citizens for saying it. I could go out on the street corner right now and talk just like that lady did about how Palestinians are being genoiceded while we do nothing and all about even how Trump and Epstein were buddies and nothing will happen to me. Nothing.
In the UK they can detain you for questioning because their face scans of you (that you can’t refuse) look like some other dude who may or may not have done a crime.
In the UK they can arrest an 84 year old Lady for just saying she is against the targeted killing of an entire ethnicity of people and nothing else.
Bro, that is insane. You realize that is insane right? I’m not saying USA isn’t insane our cops use citizens as target practice but god damn arresting old ladies for saying they don’t support what Israel is doing? That’s way more fucked up then anything going on in America.
I think you’re taking a single, disputed incident and presenting it as if it’s how the UK normally works.
I agree this video is a disgrace, but the issue wasn’t simply “an old lady was arrested for saying she opposed genocide.” The circumstances are more complicated than that, and there are ongoing legal and factual disputes about why the police intervened. Reducing it to “you get arrested in Britain for criticising Israel” isn’t an accurate description of UK law.
People in the UK publicly criticise Israel, the UK government, and the police every single day. There have been countless pro-Palestinian demonstrations involving hundreds of thousands of people. If merely saying “I oppose what Israel is doing” were grounds for arrest, our prisons would be overflowing.
The same applies to facial recognition. There are legitimate debates about police use of the technology, but saying “you can’t refuse it” or implying people are routinely detained because the computer thinks they look like someone else leaves out a lot of important legal safeguards and oversight.
The US and the UK both have genuine issues around policing and civil liberties, but it’s not helpful to compare the worst anecdote from one country with the worst anecdote from the other and then claim one is fundamentally free while the other isn’t. Reality is more nuanced than that.