America is the Land of the Free

First: To those voting- please note: I have not attacked my opponent personally, yet he has twice claimed my arguments to be “ridiculous”. (lack of conduct) Round 3:To recap- The Topic we are Debating is the statement: “America is the Land of the Free”. We are not debating whether America has some degree of freedom. We are debating if it is the Freest. That universal claim that is implied in the statement "The Land of the Free" . It implies that we are Freer than all other nations. It implies that this land is the Epitome of freedom, by which all others lands are to be compared. It implies that America defines freedom for the whole world. Therefore my burden of proof is to show whether America Leads the World in being an example and epitome of a Free Society. In the previous round I argued that American Freedom of Speech and Personal Expression are highly compromised today. The examples are not isolated incidents- nor “room for improvement”- but rather illustrate a systematic dominance of Political Correctness, which extinguishes diverse viewpoints, and punishes those who contradict them. These statements Made in Private- which do not impact professional performance or directly harm anyone else, directly caused unfair confiscation of property, and firing/ denial of work. The examples go well beyond simple “social friction” and amount to outright social Censorship. My opponent cites a map from the Social Progress Index. It shows that the US is ranked 15th in “Personal Freedom and Choice”- behind Uruguay and nearly every northern European Country. In Personal rights, the US is Ranked 22nd in the world. With the Claim “Land of the Free”- you would think that America would at least rank in the Top 10!... I rest my case. In this Round, I will show how in America, Personal Privacy- the right of any citizen in a Free society- is in jeopardy. In the US today, Personal Privacy is rapidly disappearing. 1. Edward Snowden- revealed the extent to which our Government spies on its own citizens. Everyday people’s conversations, emails, and locations are recorded and observed by government employees- without their knowledge. That is a blatant infringement of one’s right to privacy. http://mashable.com...2. The NSA violates freedom by tampering with US made internet routers. They implant interception tools, as described by the Guardian in this article. http://www.theguardian.com...3. A majority of Americans disapprove of the way the NSA collects information about them. http://www.usatoday.com... Yet today there are still no protections from this kind of surveillance. 4. The “right to be forgotten” has been a hot topic in Europe. This right would protect people’s reputations, images, and records. Europe has spearheaded reforms of this kind to internet privacy. Last spring they ruled that individuals have the right to have certain data deleted. Polls show that Americans also feel this is necessary here in the States. http://www.newsfactor.com...In this sense, Europe is leading the way when it comes to Internet Privacy, and leading the world in regulations to protect individual rights. If one considers Privacy a Freedom, it becomes hard to claim that America is “the land of the free”. We are somewhere between 15th and 24th freest country in the World.