What Does It Mean to Be a Free Nation?

American Thinker ^ | J.B. Shurk

[RoosterRedux]

There is no shortage of Internet forums filled with energetic contributors all predicting the imminent collapse of the West. Communicating about current events, culture, war, and the economy, a multitude of anonymous speakers publicize their worries every day. Western governments — increasingly insecure, hostile to tradition, and unmoored from any abiding principles — have decided that the best way to project strength is to silence critics.

As European governments more overtly embrace censorship and criminalize speech, the incremental push toward a regulated online system requiring authenticated digital identities promises a future when only government-engineered narratives will be approved for public expression. Society will lose another “pressure release valve” as the Western Establishment welds shut the ventilators of public debate — hoping to trap citizens’ combustible grievances deep underground.

This century has been eye-opening for many reasons. Technological innovation has weakened institutional control over public opinion and empowered regular people to question authorities in meaningful ways. Among the important revelations that have subsequently come to light is the inescapable conclusion that Western governments are not at all committed to free speech. For many Westerners who lived through the Cold War, this has come as a bit of a shock.

The principal distinction that supposedly separated the Soviet Union from the “free” West, after all, was that the former maintained a “closed” system managed by a strong central government, while the latter restrained government power and ensured protections for citizens’ personal liberties. In the Soviet Union, government apparatchiks constructed and disseminated official “truths.” In the U.S.-led West, no government had a legitimate monopoly over truth.

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TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: americanstinker; jbshurk

[SpaceBar]

In the original context it meant being free of King George III’s tax collectors.

[Alberta's Child]

The whole COVID fiasco should have ended all delusions about “freedom” in western nations.

[MtnClimber]

You can bet that there is another pandemic in the works. COVID was not deadly enough.

[RoosterRedux]

Freedom is never a guarantee. It is a forever battle. There are always forces that work to take it away.

Covid policies were just one example.

Currently, the forces of Wokeness and globalism are threatening the same thing.

Freedom always ebbs and flows as we fight to defend it.

[Alberta's Child]

True. But I knew this country was doomed when I saw how much crap and scolding I had to endure in the spring of 2020 from Branch Covidians right here on this website over my refusal to shut down my business and hide under my bed.

[FreedomPoster]

You misspelled “plandemic”.

[central_va]

I don’t remember any of that.

[BobL]

The US, given its founding, its people, and limitations on who could vote, will likely be the ONLY COUNTRY capable of true freedom - where governments losing power to people who think completely different could peacefully accept election results.

But then one major party, the DEMOCRATS, realized that if you change the above conditions - the people, who could vote, etc., you could institute Fascism, and so we stand on the brink.

[Sicon]

"I don’t remember any of that."

I sure do. I had many FR posters, many long-time, frequent posters, scolding me and suggesting that I was selfish and stupid, because I wouldn't bend the knee to the "COVID" lies and hysteria, particularly with respect to the "vaccines" (Dugway Duke, I'm looking at you, though you're hardly alone). I also read many threads where Alberta's Child went up against those COVIDiots.

"COVID" provided a pretty clear sorting of people. I now know which people I should never trust, because they are gullible fools, latent tyrants, and a threat to freedom.

[libertylover]

Having fair elections and a fair press are cornerstones. Our elections are mostly fair with the 2020 presidential election the largest exception that I can think of. But our big press is not even close to being fair. See Tagline.

[RoosterRedux]

Very true. Fortunately, we have the internet so the truth still gets disseminated.