4 ms·

If you believe “free world” should be in quotes you need to travel more or talk to more expats. Maybe we really do need a little dance with authoritarianism he

• devsda 3y ago
  I think the "free world" here is not a reference to the people's freedom but a reference to the sovereignty & freedom of national governments themselves w.r.t to certain policies on the global stage.
• PickledHotdog 3y ago
  Traveller and expat here - "free world" is absolutely correct. Even its allies aren't free of government interference from the US.
  • api 3y ago
    I meant at the individual level. I don't care nearly as much about what governments can do.
    • bdw5204 3y ago
      From the individual level, obviously the US and its allies are the freest countries in the world. US adversaries are basically all obvious tyrannies of one form or another. But US allies are not "free" in the sense that they can't do something that the US really doesn't like. Japan's government, for example, would not be trying to repeal its pacifist constitution unless they had the US's blessing to re-militarize. Basically, there are 2 different senses in which a country can be called "free". But even in the individual liberty sense, a libertarian (either of the Ron Paul or Noam Chomsky variants) would not consider the US or any of its allies to be free and acting like they are libertarian countries is a good way to become a martyr.