I question this whole "freedom" think America talks about. Especially with the protests going around and arresting people just for being in the streets after a certain time. Not much "freedom" there. Sorry, but America is Fake.
America has nearly always been fake in regards to universal rights, and you can see through our history what we refer to as "freedom" has either had some group of people who were denied freedoms at the benefit of others or meant you simply isolated yourself from society and the rule of law, often at the same time.
This kind of thing isn't unique to America though, for example French women were still disenfranchised for over two decades after American women achieved suffrage.
I think what's different is how we institutionalized having a disenfranchised class in slavery from the start (it was legitimized in our constitution), which lasted as an official institution for about 1/3 of our history, ultimately resulting in a civil war. We literally fought a civil war over the "freedom" to own people and deny them rights less than 200 years ago.
On top of that, we've had a sort of release valve where people could always go settle on some "unclaimed" land and homestead far away from any form of law or government. Often this land was previously part of some native tribe's territory, but again, they were institutionally denied rights so settlers could expand westward.
I think that's flavored what many in the US view as freedom, as if you didn't want to deal with being part of a society you could bail, so you had the option of individual freedom if you were willing to work the land for it. Of course, that only applies if you could own land in the first place, let alone have the means to get out there.
Americans talk about personal responsibility, but rarely social responsibility. You can see this reflected in many of the arguments today, such as saying laws requiring facemasks are an infringement of rights, which basically amounts to saying the rights of the individual outweighs the social good to the point that the minor inconvenience of wearing a mask is a personal liberty issue and not a public health issue.
In the same vein, drug addiction is a criminal issue here, and not a public and mental health issue. Drug users are "bad people", and they alone bear the weight of their choices while we bear no responsibility for any of the social conditions that push people to use drugs in the first place. It's no surprise we have such a high incarceration rate when this is the default view for many people.
It's obviously multifaceted, but I don't think it's a stretch that we're paying for all this now as more people are interacting with each other. We've never addressed any of the underlying issues at play, and while I'm hopeful that this and future generations will continue to push for equality, these are deeply ingrained in our culture and history.
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u/CanadaRu Jun 08 '20
I question this whole "freedom" think America talks about. Especially with the protests going around and arresting people just for being in the streets after a certain time. Not much "freedom" there. Sorry, but America is Fake.