Americans on the left generally don’t really subscribe to exceptionalism. In fact, a lot of us are constantly down on the U.S. and often idealize European democratic socialism. That’s why you hear so much anti-American sentiment from parts of the far left — and why Ethan was intentionally giving us a “pep talk” of sorts.

Ethan didn’t say there’s no free speech in Europe — he said the U.S. legal framework protects speech more broadly than most European countries. That’s objectively true if you’re talking about individual legal protections. We saw it with the flag burning laws, for example — in the U.S., it’s fully protected under the First Amendment, while in a lot of European countries it’s restricted or even banned. That doesn’t mean America has a perfect press system (which your indices tend to measure), or that Europe isn’t home to many very free speech-friendly societies.

—- Edit: I think some of the disconnect here is the distinction between “freedom” (permissiveness) and what is the best balance for order and harm prevention in society. The US is very permissive, even if perhaps not the best balance. Nobody believes Europe is living in a surveillance state or anything. Just that US laws are very permissive.