Easy reply: you are free to inspect the veracity of my claims. The constitution, law, and precedents are all available on google. Not to mention your state department released something very relevant very recently. Incidentally you are allies, so the report is more likely to be rosy than critical. If I'm lying or embelishing, then you'll be able to see that. Do you guys think this is being made up? Every person communicating to you through certain countries are operating through self-filters to protect their safety. This is reality which may seem movie-like to you, but consider the circumstances and the recent history of these issues before you jump on the MOST convenient excuse of all: "I don't believe you because it seems intellectually dishonest and although all the information is available to me I'm going to stop right there." Thanks for conceding the last point re responsibility. Do you think it is appropriate to compare Americans rethinking their votes with the likely outcome of what would happen if people of certain countries even made a political statement without being authorized to do so? I advise you to do more research, in all sincerity I feel that you are so incredibly out of the loop to even suggest some of the things you're suggesting about certain countries. It is incredible to think that we know what we know, and you are accusing me of being intellectually dishonest in this regard. Your accusation shows a certain mindset about me: that of a person who can be critical of anyone if they wanted, but chooses to be critical of America and its allies only, with no legitimate motive to do so, willing to lie to do this and tacit approval of any wrongs which take place in his country. That's an abhorrent accusation, and I don't even know what to call that to be honest. If I want to be critical of America, and I'm willing to include America's allies from east to west in this criticism, why would I stop at one small select group of its allies? If it's a regional thing, why am I critical of Iran? If it's an Arab thing why am I critical of Egypt? If it's about my culture why am I happy to be critical of the Iranian regime and the Turkish genoceides and Turkish treatment of the PKK? If it's a religious thing why am I saying Morsi is another Mubarak, or that Hamas+Fatah are terrorists? It just doesn't add up, this theory of yours. The lengths to which you have to go to make that baseless accusation is, frankly, shameful.
Reread my post. I said that I have no doubt that your speech and political freedoms are limited. What I said is that seems rather convenient then for you to go and bash others while absolving yourself of any responsibility. For Americans yes we should accept our responsibility for our actions and exercise our votes accordingly. That is from our perspective but for a non-American it is venal to put the onus on Americans to enact change while absolving themselves of any responsibility. Again I understand that many are under restrictions that said freedom also means responsibility. You seem to want the former but unwilling to take the latter. As someone though participating your are free to speak out about anything you want (up to the extent that Clutch allows since this actually is private cyber property) what you should be doing though is considering is there any responsibility about what you say? My primary disagreement with you isn't that the US has done bad things but the rather shallow view that you have of America, American policies, American history, and the American people. I would say the same thing to you considering some of the basic lack of history and outlandish comparisons that you have made, ie basically considering the Empire of Japan the same as the US in WWII. Anyway as I said above I have no doubt you are under restrictions greater than I am. That doesn't mean that you aren't venal. What baseless accusation? You say yourself that you are afraid to be more critical of your own country so instead you direct your criticism towards others. Your whole argument in the first part of this post is that your choice of who you are critical of is restricted.
