Freedom is subjective
If you live in a cage, eat only the slugs and rats you can catch, wrap yourself in newspapers the wind blows in (when the wind brings you newspaper), sit in your own waste, and totally rely on someone else to decide everything that happens to you, and this is exactly how you want to live, you are completely free.
It's not the life I would choose. I wouldn't be free in that situation. But freedom is doing what you want so whether you are free or not depends only on what you want.
Many people are free in a police state. They don't want liberty because the responsibility scares them, or they are too lazy to handle it. This is why they crow and celebrate "freedom" while smarter people look at them in stunned silence, wondering what they've been smoking. But, by their measure, they are free.
So they keep v*ting. They keep supporting cops. They don't mind "taxation" and legislation-- at least in concept. They are OK with anti-gun legislation and policies. They don't think about the licenses and permits they are told they must rent. They don't care about their privacy because they've been convinced that as long as they have nothing to hide privacy doesn't matter. All those liberty violations are fine with them-- they are living the way they want to, so they are free. And they will do whatever it takes to prevent changes they don't want.
Maybe you can convince them to be unhappy in their chains, but maybe you can't. You may need to leave them behind; leave them fighting for their chains and against those who can't live their way. Your destiny may not involve them.
I feel like a SHTF event is imminent. Notice I don't say I think it is, rather it's just a feeling. Possibly triggered by the upcoming election.
I don't have a crystal ball. I'm almost definitely wrong.
If you can see it coming, it's not going to happen. That's almost a guarantee.
Just like the Coronapocalypse came at us out of nowhere, triggered by unexpected government overreactions to a fairly normal virus, a more serious event will also be a surprise. Consider the Coronapanic a practice run. It should have shown you the holes in your preps if you were paying attention.
I lucked out with the panicdemic because I was ready. Well, maybe it wasn't completely luck; I've prepped for years "just in case", and it finally paid off. I was pretty sure I wouldn't see it coming when it finally happened, and I didn't. But it didn't matter because I stay ready all the time-- and I have done so since well before the Y2K fizzle. I intend to be just as ready, if not more ready, the next time something ...
Sometimes it's good to just listen to people's stories without interrupting, even when you know the stories are nonsense.
My 2nd wife used to tell of a ghost that lived in her house when she was a kid. It was an interesting story even though I didn't believe it. I learned quickly that her family was very prone to believe anything as long as it fit with their magical worldview.
Other people tell me stories about beneficial things political government can do. These stories are no more true-- in the sense of being objective reality-- than ghost stories, but they can still be informative if you want to know which particular superstitions a person is living under.
Interrupt and you'll never hear the whole tale. Listen and you might be entertained by some fantastical tales of magical realms. Just don't bet your life on them being true.
My nature is such that I simply can't see government as a solution to anything. This puts me at odds with most of the rest of my species.
Yes, I think "social media" has become a horror. This doesn't mean I want government to regulate it; it means I think people who don't like it (or are too dumb to know not to take it at face value) should probably stop using it.
The same is true of so many other things I don't like.
Litter/pollution, scammers, sexual predators, abortion, animal cruelty, Hillary Clinton, poverty, drug abuse, pandemics, crime, and all manner of awful things.
I may hate them, but that doesn't mean I want government to step in. Look how often that has the opposite effect anyway; making the original problem worse-- or at least not solving it-- while also creating a host of new problems that never would have existed otherwise (anti-gun legislation being a perfect example).
And even if government intervention doesn't make this specific problem worse this particular ...
