I think that’s a different issue. Their childish and individualistic views over freedom don’t seem to be caused by the word itself, or can mean both “costlessness” and “freedom”. They look more like failure to notice freedom is a gradation (you can have more or less of it) instead of a binary (you either have it, or you don’t).
I wonder if it isn’t due to Cold War times propaganda. Something like “you either have freedom or you don’t. We have it, our enemies don’t.”
They also seem to have a really hard time understanding the basic principle of civility, that sometimes one’s freedoms enter in conflict with another’s.
I’m sure the cold war plays a part, yeah. But the word itself has kind of become an empty signifier for generic “conservative American-ness” divorced from the actual meaning of the word. (See: referring to imperial measures as “Freedom Units”)
Given how confused Americans are about “freedom,” even the weak version isn’t to be taken lightly
I think that’s a different issue. Their childish and individualistic views over freedom don’t seem to be caused by the word itself, or can mean both “costlessness” and “freedom”. They look more like failure to notice freedom is a gradation (you can have more or less of it) instead of a binary (you either have it, or you don’t).
I wonder if it isn’t due to Cold War times propaganda. Something like “you either have freedom or you don’t. We have it, our enemies don’t.”
They also seem to have a really hard time understanding the basic principle of civility, that sometimes one’s freedoms enter in conflict with another’s.
I’m sure the cold war plays a part, yeah. But the word itself has kind of become an empty signifier for generic “conservative American-ness” divorced from the actual meaning of the word. (See: referring to imperial measures as “Freedom Units”)