Something I Found Out About Europe

About half of European countries, if not slightly more, all have laws on the books that technically make it illegal to criticize their own heads of state and those of other countries. It is only through common sense, good faith, and legit ignorance that most politicians generally don't bother enforcing these laws.

Vladimir Putin was the first leader to take advantage of laws on the books that nobody had bothered enforcing since the Soviet collapse. Similar to the United States, but on a much more extreme level, Russian judges played fast and loose with basic logic and legal principles and made their country the whole outback when it comes to kangaroo courts.

The scary thing is that there's very, very little keeping each and every European country from becoming as repressive as Putin's Russia. 

Britain- Has security cams everywhere, banned pro-Palestine protests, trying to ban VPNs, and forced Internet users to dox themselves and give up all of their privacy

France- Cracked down on pro-Palestine protests, tried to prosecute a woman for insulting Macron based on an obscure French law that nobody had bothered enforcing

Germany- Made Palestinian identity almost completely illegal; pervasive Internet censorship that until recently, was the most extreme in Western Europe

Poland- For all intents and purposes, Poland is a Catholic version of Putin's Russia. They arrested women for just going into a church with protest signs when it took far more than that for Nadya Tolokonnikova and Masha Alyokhina to get arrested for something similar (and for something that would otherwise would have been a misdemeanor at best). This isn't even getting into their laws against talking about various WWII-related taboos. 

Right now, I can't afford to move to or live in Europe. But that's okay for now. Capitalism has misled a lot of people, but especially Americans, into thinking cost is an accurate measure of living standards. Southeast Asia and South America are quickly catching up to the United States and even their dingiest cities have better urban planning than most US cities. They don't have anywhere near the number of addicts and homeless that we do.