Eddie you covered a lot of ground there. I think I have a few, not many, years on you so you and I have witnessed a lot of changes in our lifetime, as did our parents and theirs before them.
My grandfather was born in 1888. We were very close and he passed a month after my 9th birthday. The only thing that is fundamentally different now than it was 5000 years ago is we now have it in our face 24 hours a day thanks to the internet.
Where do we draw the line between for what is "socially accepatble behavior" and oppression? In our quest for unopressed freedom of expression should we draw the line at Trump/Jillian Michaels/RuPaul?
Great thing in "most of the unopressed countries" is people have choices.
People who are for the most part here illegally fall into a lot a baskets. Sorry but how are these ICE detention centers with people dying at the rate of one a week and children being carted away in broad daylight helping?
This country has welcomed immigrants and relied on them. Heck you can go to any major city and find an Italian, Mexican, Greek, Oriental resturante anad them some. This may be the only country where you can meet someone who claims to be German, Irish, Italian or Mexican and can't speak the language, been there or tell you what the capitol is.
The USA has been multilangual since the beginning. Should we all "David Koresh"? Look on the bright side, we all have the freedom to make choices.
This isn't strictly limited to the USA. Europe has been getting hammered with hoards of boat people from Africa just showing up for years, can't shoot'em. They, like the immigrants "mostly" coming here across the southern border and predominantly running for their lives looking for freedom, which we dangle like a carrot with one hand while cracking a whip and imprison with the other.
You and I can dye our hair green like the crazies in Seattle but at the same time have to sit by and watch the government dictate it as it all rolls out. You can only do what is working for you. We can surround ourselves with a microcosim of like thinkers like the Amish do but, we each have it in our ability to make lots of choices daily and long term but we can hold back whatever changes are coming down the pike unless you are a Putin, Kim, Xi Jinping or an Ayatolla.
What we have may not be perfect but we each have the option to take or leave it which is more than citizens in other countries have.
We've basically had 250 years of no other countries invading or bombing us. How much longer do you thing that is going to last especially with Trump rocking the boat like a demented six year old. Hypersonic missels could be launched from Nuke Subs like rain right off shore and burn us tot he ground. The world will laugh at us and say it's about time. They got what they have dished out to countries like Afganistan, Korea, Iraq, Viet Nam, etc etc etc.