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wbronitskytoday at 1:49 AM3 repliesview on HN

I think parsing out what kind of freedom would help here. The US has a lot of “freedom of” but not a lot of “freedom from.”


Replies

dborehamtoday at 2:15 AM

Freedom Theater

threethirtytwotoday at 2:00 AM

Any freedom. For example you don't have the freedom to own guns in China.

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bmitctoday at 2:50 AM

The U.S. doesn't have that much real freedom. It is nearly completely controlled by a concentrated oligarchy of people and corporations. Sure, there are rights, but these are almost entirely enforced via a massively beauractic and expensive judicial system. So if your rights are violated, it can take months and perhaps thousands or millions of dollars to prove and correct such violations. A cop murders someone? That takes like two years or more of trials and appeals if it even escapes internal affairs and the district attorney's office.

As an example, Texas is a state that prides itself on freedom but is incredibly privatized. There's hardly any public land. The entire electricity grid is privately owned. Toll roads abound in every major city. Over 20% of homes have an HOA, so those Texans have people (basically a small corporation) telling them how to cut their lawn. Women can't get medically suggested abortions. Universities are told what to teach by donors and politicans. For a while, the Texas DMV was collecting fingerprints just to get a license. Is that really freedom?

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