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Cindy K's avatar

This is a disheartening piece to me, because the concept of freedom is deeply motivating and profoundly meaningful to me, but as I commented on another substack, “freedom” simply is not valued by many people. When I use that word, the responses range from good-natured patience with me to outright anger. My own sister got really quite inflamed with me about the issue of freedom — I would say it also made her disdainful that I would think “freedom” is important to the whole discussion of mandates and lockdowns etc. I can summarize her response as “Grow up, Cindy, you’re such a selfish person!” Freedom = Selfish. To many other people, they are so beaten down that the words “You can’t fight City Hall” have more meaning than “We are endowed by our Creator with unalienable rights.” Other people are so far gone that the mere mention of the Declaration of Independence makes their brains go DING: “racist white guys.” To people who are patient with my belief in the importance of freedom, the standard reply is, “It’s about saving lives.” Said like they’re talking to a child. If they can go to the mall and choose a shirt to buy, or turn on the TV and choose a show to watch, then that is good enough for them. Some of them think I’m paranoid to think freedom is even in peril. It’s exhausting. We can’t give up, but it’s exhausting.

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John Thompson's avatar

The cat man has become my daily meditiation. I just wish everyone in the world could get scratched by the cat!

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