Is American freedom really unique in modern world? Or has it lost its distinctiveness?

Freedom of speech in the US is, as best I can tell, the best in the world. Most countries do in fact have "the 1st amendment", sometimes broken into several part of their constitution but guarantees of speech, press, and associative freedom are common. Here's a fun one from a country known for its stalwart defense of civil liberty... "Citizens have the right to elect and be elected , freedom of speech, the press, assembly, demonstration and association. The point I'm trying to make is that having a "1st Amendment" doesn't mean it will actually be enforced.

As far as I can tell most other developed democracies (not to mention fake democracies) have some kind of mitigating circumstances which water down freedom of expression. Like, freedom of speech unless you're a bigot, or are sharing fake news, or are hurting someone's feelings. Most of these exceptions are genuinely crap and I do believe freedom speech is more important than not offending people. That's not to say US freedom of speech is perfect either, particularly regarding copyright and whistleblowing.

The breadth of freedom to own guns in the US is also rather unique among developed democracies. However this is not envied elsewhere. The popularity of a 2nd amendment in most other developed, democratic countries would often be roughly in between an amendment which protects street pooping and one which protects the right to drive drunk.

The fact that there are countries without the right to a trial by jury terrifies me. I will never understand this, and the strength of innocence until proven guilt is a major asset for American society. Though this is somewhat counterbalanced by degree of importance that ends up getting placed on expensive representation and money in the legal system.

And in all the other ways there's one country or another that outdoes us. Our constitution, as beautiful as it is, is now very old and has been outdone in efficiency and representative depth by ones which were written or substantively overhauled after the introduction of trains and telegraphs. The electoral college is a farce. Furthermore other non-statutory issues like extremism in both parties has ruined our civil society. Beyond that, we let our cops run absolutely hog wild compared to most other developed democracies, which may well be a necessity created, in fact, by the ubiquity of guns. And then there's the conditions in our prisons, particularly private ones, which amount to legal slavery.

TLDR: US Freedom of Speech is actually the best, as is the breadth of our right to trial by jury. The Right to Bear Arms is unique in the developed world but considered unreasonable by most, akin to letting people drive drunk. Otherwise the US is somewhere between "good" and "average" among developed countries by measurements and indices of freedom, and in some regards like police misconduct and the prison system, we are among the worst in the developed world.

/r/centrist Thread