A good comment on the article
“As a foreigner, I typically refrained from commenting on US domestic politics during my time in the country. When Americans asked me if Singapore was authoritarian or why it had banned chewing gum (the usual tropes), I would just smile politely and give a diplomatic answer.
One thing I never understood was the inability - or immaturity - of some to realise that there are other things that are important that are not freedom. Lee Kuan Yew once said if you asked a person in a developing country what they wanted it would be low crime and safety, running water and electricity and food for their family to eat.
But there is a very American tendency to overindex on freedom. Today, there are indicators on which the US ranks on par with certain developing countries (infant mortality and life expectancy are worse than in Cuba which endured sanctions for decades). But at least there’s freedom I suppose.
Also, freedom can encompass far more than freedom of speech and assembly: what about the freedom to return home safely? To send kids to school knowing they’ll be safe? Democratic freedoms are a worthy ideal but we need to stop pretending democracy is everything and devoid of any flaws. It can be hijacked easily by self-interested groups which resist positive change. Some institutional frameworks are also needed to ensure societal order and progress. As Singapore’s former Deputy Prime Minister said: outcomes are ensured through policies and mechanisms not speeches.”
That guy gets it, what about the freedom to not be robbed?
I want the freedom to fill my truck with 100% pure gasoline at any gas station in the USA.
The freedom to protect yourself is #1. Thomas Jefferson carefully laid out “Life, Liberty and the PURSUIT of Happiness” in that order in the Declaration of Independence. If you aren’t secure in your life (self-protection), you cannot have liberty. Without liberty, you cannot pursue happiness.
Everything flows from being safe in your person which leads to the right to self defense and 2A.
On par with the third world like Cuba!
Infant mortality rate is due to trying to give birth to the most difficult pregnancies on earth.
Obesity or abundance is the cause of lowered life expectancy.
Both of which are the opposite of like the third world.
Imagine be4lieving Cuba is superior in any way, shape or form.
Leftists and uniformed foreigners like the Singaporean who’s healthcare system my tax dollars subsidize should educate themselves.
The author can extol the virtues of big government liberal socialism while for 20yrs, 1000 people a day have moved from blue to red states.
“That guy gets it, what about the freedom to not be robbed?”
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Both on the street and at the paycheck.
Couldn’t agree more - unrestrained freedom is a jungle. We have too much freedom to do stupid and harmful things and not enough personal consequences for doing stupid and harmful thungs.
Singapore may be a bit strict, but we are way, way too lose.
I disagree. When you trade your liberty for security, what happens when those that provide your security violate that trust. 30s and 40s Germany shows us the example. What the writer fails to understand about the U.S. is the compact our founders entered into for our liberty has been broken by our corrupt contemporary politicians and the globalist deep state. Our liberty has become and illusion and our security has been destroyed.
Lee Kuan Yew is not the best guy to admire.
This writer’s premise is flawed that leftist progressivism is freedom.
This writers view is exactly in line with Kristoff’s in fact. They make the same argument: blue states are richer, as if that’s the be all end all.
Materialism is all.
Brother to brother, I can tell you that you do not understand anything about what is going on. And understand, I do not say that like you are dumb, or clueless. I would be in the exact same boat, but I got into the arena and became active and threatened to rise in prominence. There is the most professional intel op in the world, running the biggest psyop ever on everyone and it has fooled everyone.
The US right now, is the most repressive dictatorship you have ever seen. And due to the psyop being run on everyone too busy making a living to get involved, nobody can see the real government.
I could go on, about the guy who I guarantee you is down the street, who has listened to your most private moments in your home, simply because he has been assigned a few hundred people to do that with, I could tell you without a doubt surveillance has tracked you at some point in your life, but there is too much. Click the link in my tag if you are interested. It costs me money, but the more people who know about this the better for the nation.
Liberty is a slippery slope. We conservatives should not have gone all in on liberty in the 20th century.
Only as long as "freedom" benefits the goals of The Left.
As soon as "freedom" has played its role in breaking down society, you'll see The Left impose its opposite.
We got a taste of that during COVID.
Nicholas Kristof really is a fool. In fact to call him "a fool" gives him way too much credit.
Government can never make us safe. It's God given duty is to punish and destroy evildoers. Yet our infitely wise, elite and merciful governors would rather play god and "make us safe" than to do their duty. May God damn them!
WOW, what a load of BS. So you are mentioning democracy, and democratic freedoms and saying we have to much freedom in our country. I have traveled to twenty two countries. The USA is the freest nation in the world, the best place to live. Of coarse, the democrats are trying hard to kill us. Our republican form of government, not democracy, is freedom.
We’re trying to keep y’all outta flyover country!
“infant mortality and life expectancy are worse than in Cuba” ... a deceptive half-truth. It depends on how deaths of infants and young children are counted, IIRC.
“... (infant mortality and life expectancy are worse than in Cuba...”