3 ms·

Peter Thiel: "Most importantly, I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible." (second paragraph of link from article, direct link here: https

• civilian 10y ago
  I know you think it's a scandalous quote, but there is a weird interplay between democracy and freedom. In some sense, government can maximize our freedom. By having police, a military, and a strong justice system we allow people to make decisions without worrying about crime. (And importantly I would include corporate fraud in the umbrella of "crime", and I think that the imbalanced resources & information between employer/employee and retailer/consumer justifies the government stepping in to standardize how those groups should interact.) It's a Pax Romana! When we don't have to worry about bandits, barbarians and charlatans then we flourish. But government can also diminish our freedom. We get spied on. We can't do harmless recreational drugs. For a long time we couldn't have sex in certain ways or with certain people. We can't choose how our child's school money gets spent (it by default goes to public schools-- I'd prefer a voucher system.) There are thousands of stupid laws! We incarcerate people at the 2nd-highest rate! And since we're the 3rd most populous country, it means that our government is one of the biggest instruments of tyranny in the world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarcera...