I'm not sure I understand, though.
I'm Canadian- and Proud of it; but consider the types of jokes that circulate about Canada- quite frequent on American TV (which we of course get). I might find it humourous not due to the way they intended but rather because of the inaccuracy of the attempt- one particular instance actually cited our police as literally being on horseback and always wearing the dress uniform (the red one) when in fact they do drive police cars and wear standard blue police uniforms. Not to mention the constant references to some supposed "accent" we all have which we in fact do not have. (well, maybe in the East. They are the Deep South of Canada).
Now- you of course see none of this type of stuff directed at the US (well, none that I've seen) but the reaction would be quite different- this is what I don't understand.
I can see the annoyance factor- many people exercise their right to free speech, and of course, not everybody agrees, especially when that right to free speech might be exercised to say that no such right exists, or some similar manner. But this is not exclusive to the U.S- every democratic nation finds that the very rights they give their citizens can often be exercised to claim that those rights don't exist- or are being "recanted" in some form.
The thing is, without these voices, the rights would disappear over time; This is, in essence, one of the main difference between a fascist/communist regime and democracy- with democracy, the people essentially enforce the government's responsiblity to ensure that the basic rights set forth in the original charter/constitution etc are not infringed by new laws- if a new law does infringe on it, the only way to get it repealed is if people speak out. In a dictatorial regime, the voices are simply silenced, and the constitutional regress continues unabated.
Therefore, in many ways, while it is the governments responsibility to keep the original freedoms intact, it is also the responsibility of the subjects of that government to force that government not to infringe on those inalienable human rights that democratic and constitutional confederations hold dear. One of these inalienable rights in the charters and constitutions of every country of that nature- Canada, the U.S, New Zealand, the UK, and so forth, includes the right to free speech. As I said before, we may not always agree with what that right entails others to express, but at the same time, as citizens of these countries we are bound to defend those peoples rights to do so. Consider for a moment that, although we may not agree with what Azzaboi is saying regarding the U.S, it is in fact the very fact that he was able to say it at all that proves him wrong. if there really was some sort of government censorship or "selective" freedom of speech, it stands to reason that his post would have been silently changed by the "thought police" I'm sure he envisions with the task of "selecting" what speech is free. Of course, since his post is present in full and, in a way, his ability to express it is at least in some way protected by the Constitution of the U.S. But here, interestingly enough we learn that New Zealand has no constitution... the various freedoms that would normally be inalienable due to a constitution is really more a set of precedents and conventions; Sure, they are covered by several Constitution Acts that were passed- much like Canada- however, unlike Canada, New Zealand has no Equivalent for the Charter of Rights and Freedoms- which is roughly equivalent to the U.S constitution on many ways.
Now, that being said, it doesn't mean that New Zealand is or ever will become an opressive state, but it is interesting to note that the very country he states as having "selective" free speech and other such discretionary rights in fact has a government document that instead guarantees these rights to all it's citizens- whereas his country does not.
And yes, I'm aware this has nothing to do with index.dat, but I felt it important to take note of this rather interesting, if extremely subtle, irony.
