No one loss of freedom seems bad, till it happens to you. A liberal relative of mine was upset one weekend because her sonny boy would have to spend money to go digital with his T.V., and because she might not be able to buy compact fluorescent light bulbs for all her fixtures. "I thought this was supposed to be a free country!" For decades this woman has watched the evening news, nodding her head, and saying people "shouldn't be allowed to do this," or "should be forced to do that." She has voted in every election to curtail the freedom of others. But only when her freedoms are curtailed (on very minor matters) does she discover the idea of freedom.
I could laugh more easily if I hadn't lost a third of my net worth in a stock market crash caused by government meddling in the housing and banking markets.
Government controls education. Many parents are estranged from their children because of the liberal indoctrination that is provided from K through 16.
Medical care may already be controlled more than most realize, and it is only going to get worse. You may be forced to take the statins, or some other junk medicine, that kills you (thereby reducing society's medical costs, and freeing up your assets for others).
When some of us shiver in winter, complain about the high cost of gasoline after the next major uptick, or suffer brownouts in summer, remember, this was a choice of our own making. The energy industry can give us cheap and plentiful heat in winter, gasoline for our cars, and dependable electricity and cooling in the summer. They only need to be freed.
A soft but very real tyranny has already arrived, though it can get far worse.
It has happened already.
A lot of FReepers are guilty of this too, unaware that by enacting ex post facto curtailments of others' liberties, even of the lowest and least defensible such as registered sex offenders, without due process of law, they're curtailing their own freedoms down the road.
An example posted in another thread is of the "licensed gun owner" (um, hello...?) who under some federal bill will have to report his change of address within 60 days of moving. It will not be long before (for "public safety" reasons) he has to report his move 10 to 14 days in advance, similar to this and other states' laws for registered sex offenders, enacted ex post facto and upheld by the courts for "public safety" reasons.
As you do it to the worst of these, you do it to yourself. Enjoy the result.