JayDeeJan 12, 2023
Eric Blair

I increasingly think that “freedom” is the most important word to take back from the fascists.

In rightwing hands, freedom often means
“no rules to allow billionaires to accumulate all the profits and power” or “privatize and destroy societal services” — schools to healthcare.

Real freedom is freedom from want, freedom to pursue happiness without worry about healthcare bankruptcy and with good schools for all.

Jan 8, 2023 at 7:58pmWeb
Show threadDfultonJan 8, 2023
@protecttruth I would add ‘patriot’ to this list
Show threadSam AdamsJan 9, 2023
@Dfulton @protecttruth I used to think the Gadsden Flag was the coolest of the Colonial battle flags, but since the Tea Party and now the whole Grand Old Putin Party has appropriated it, I want to gag every time I see it.
Show threadRickJan 9, 2023
@Dfulton @protecttruth Dr Johnson said ‘patritism is the last refuge of a scoundrel’. What he didn’t mean (according to his biographer, Boswell) was ‘a real and generous love of our country’, but ‘that pretended patriotism which so many, in all ages and countries, have made a cloak for self-interest’.
Show threadOSCraneJan 10, 2023
@Dfulton @protecttruth Perhaps a controversial take, but let them keep patriot. I need not concern myself with matters of nationalistic pride. I do not limit my desire to see widespread prosperity to my own borders.
Show threadMariya DelanoJan 8, 2023

@protecttruth real freedom cannot be at the expense of everyone else.

Freedom is not just individual, but a balance of individual and social freedoms.

Show threadMessagingMattersJan 8, 2023
@protecttruth Most definitely. I've been writing about that for 9 years, e.g.:
https://messagingmatters.com/2013/02/21/taking-freedom-back/
Taking “freedom” back | Messaging Matters

Show threadcybaJan 8, 2023
@protecttruth freedom - to do what, to whom?
Show threadPhillipBrandonJan 8, 2023
@protecttruth This is a main tenet of Michael Tomasky on the How to Save a Country podcast. He and Felicia Wong have articulated this point compellingly in several episodes.
Show threadSam AdamsJan 9, 2023
@protecttruth They want the freedom to force the rest of us to give them all our money, all our work product for nothing, force women to have babies they can also exploit, and to worship the god of their choice in the manner prescribed by them
Show threadSocialistStanJan 9, 2023

@protecttruth True freedom can only be achieved when it's not a gift from the government and the oligarchy.

The right defines freedom as being free to move about an enclosure, the left should want to break that enclosure down.

Show threadTiakuh SonJan 9, 2023
@protecttruth Thats not what it means in right wind hands. That's what it means in both extremist sides. Get your biases straight.
Show threadPaul H 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇪🇺Jan 9, 2023

@tia6o @protecttruth

This is so - politics is circular. Far right and far left are identical

Show threadTiakuh SonJan 9, 2023
@Henrysbridge @protecttruth Exactly. Thats why this lose way of assuming right wing definition of freedom is that, is simple ideologic propaganda as everything else. Also, right wing has a huge spectrum, its not a binary system everywhere as it is in the US.
Show threadSaraJan 9, 2023
@protecttruth , sure, words can change their meanings. This is true for 'Freedom', as for 'Anarchia'.
The character in Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma (P.P. Pasolini) stated:
" La vera anarchia è quella del potere". Nowadays (climate change as an example) it seems exactly like this.
Show threadVicariously IOmega (fan art)Jan 9, 2023
@protecttruth freedom, kind of sounds too orwellian. Id prefer to lean into limiting freedoms as an advanced society
Show threadProkofyJan 9, 2023
@protecttruth So, would you include freedom of expression? Or no.
Show threadLiveByReasonJan 9, 2023

@protecttruth Yes. Fascists don't really care about freedom, for them, it's just a word they use to try to claim they have the right to break the law.

But, as soon as they have power, they will not give a FUCK about YOUR freedom or anyone else but them. See, for example, anti-trans and anti abortion laws that violate other people's rights.

Show threadJan BennettJan 9, 2023
@protecttruth 👏👏🙏🙏
Show threadMollyNYCJan 9, 2023

@protecttruth

Not just that.

Rightwingers have frikkin’ MASSIVE entitlement issues.

They really do think that being rightwingers means the rest of us owe them something [1]—
for example, the president of THEIR choice, whether he lost his election or not.

(Entitlement is also the underlying ethos of racism and sexism—two other rightwing characteristics.)
__
[1] A big part of its appeal —esp for those who’re too lazy/irresponsible to own their part in their own problems.

Show threadMike Taylor 🦕Jan 9, 2023

@protecttruth Stongly agree.

I have often though that a lot of our problem stem from a pun on "free" in the phrase "free markets":

Economists rightly want free markets, meaning markets that are so regulated that free competition takes place, to the advantage of consumers.

But right-wingers have so captured the media that we have been brainwashed into thinking that free markets means markets that are free from regulation.

(Which leads to monopoly, and wealth consolidation.)

Show threadPreston WalbergJan 9, 2023
@protecttruth I've been in a continual conservation on this topic with anybody willing to listen since covid began trampling our daily activities. Rather than freedom standing solitairly, synonymous with sovereignty, coupling it with suitably associated words to build out more complex meaning. 'Freedom to' opposed to 'freedom from', the latter which now is almost entirely ignored.
Show threadPreston WalbergJan 9, 2023
@protecttruth I think it may have been reading Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale as a teenager that made me conscious of this dichotomy.
Show threadCharming MalcontentJan 9, 2023

@protecttruth absolutely - the fascist manipulators of the uneducated and the disenfranchised just use it as a dog whistle to stir up "passion" (inevitably manifesting in violence)

Freedom from Want is so eloquently discussed here by #DarrenMcGarvey in his compelling #ReifLecture for the #BBC

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001g2zf

BBC Radio 4 - The Reith Lectures, The Four Freedoms, 3. Freedom from Want

Author and musician Darren McGarvey, delivers his Reith Lecture on 'Freedom from Want'.

BBC
Show threadcpiJan 9, 2023
@protecttruth @[email protected] have you seen this thread on the word Freedom by George Lakoff? Recommended
https://sfba.social/@georgelakoff/109507794498156029
George Lakoff (@[email protected])

Freedom is the most crucial idea in America. We all cherish and support freedom, yet the very meaning of the word is disputed. Freedom means different things to different people, depending on their moral worldview. Over time, our definition of freedom has been expanded to include a greater number of people, and our freedoms have expanded in a progressive direction.

SFBA.social
Show threadRobert LinkJan 9, 2023
@protecttruth The Rethuglicans have been mastering Orwellian usages long before the so-called "patriot" act.
Show threadKarl Heinz HäsliprinzJan 9, 2023

@protecttruth Graeber and Wengrow:

Freedom to Move
Freedom to Disobey
Freedom to Redefine Social Relations

Show threadKeithGJan 9, 2023
@protecttruth
Roosevelt enunciated four freedoms
FREEDOM OF SPEECH
FREEDOM OF WORSHIP
FREEDOM FROM WANT
FREEDOM FROM FEAR
I’d put Freedom from Fear first, myself, then Want…
Show threadLaura Sykes #GreeneraliaJan 9, 2023
@datchmog @protecttruth
I agree about your priorities in 2023.
The Four Freedoms speech dates from 1941. Perhaps the freedom of worship priority was because (a) the Holocaust and (??b) there was no religious freedom in the Soviet Union (and later the Soviet bloc, but of course people did not know that in 1941)??
Show threadGraydonJan 9, 2023
@protecttruth Freedom has a lot to do with a general equivalence in agency for all members of the society.
Show threadCharles J Gervasi ⚡🛡️🥥Jan 9, 2023
@protecttruth I don't want to be lumped in with the fascists because I support freedom to build limitless wealth.
Show threadJamesJan 9, 2023
@protecttruth libertarianism vs liberalism…
Show threadc.reider Jan 9, 2023
@protecttruth Nina Simone said freedom is living with no fear
Show threadSeth RutledgeJan 9, 2023
@protecttruth Freedom doesn't mean "No responsibilities", no matter how much the fascists want to brand it as such.
Show threadOblomovJan 9, 2023
@protecttruth that, and “voluntary”. They're in such desperate need to find an ethical justification to exploitation and abuse of power that they've even come up with a different word (“euvoluntary”) to man what everybody else means for voluntary.
Show threadVery Human RobotJan 9, 2023
@protecttruth are you saying everybody should be given life, liberty, and the ability to pursue happiness?
Show threadNothings MonsteredJan 10, 2023

@protecttruth FDR's Four Freedoms are still on point:

Freedom from want
Freedom from fear
Freedom of speech
Freedom of (/from) religion

Show threadMaggieci democracy enjoyerJan 10, 2023
@protecttruth We can also reclaim our flag as a good symbol of civic values.
Show threadTeagan BuckleyJan 10, 2023
@protecttruth also, the fascist bastardisation of "free speech" to mean freedom to say whatever "I" want without criticism, while silencing critics. Restore the idea that living alongside other human beings always had rules for safety and decency. No, you don't have "less free speech" because you've faced criticism and/or consequences. Culture = the speech and ideas of all the people you share life with. There was never Cancel Culture as much as what there always is, Culture Culture 😁😉😁
Show threadAlex von Thorn🇨🇦🇺🇸🚀🖊🖖Jan 10, 2023
@protecttruth Arbeit Macht Frei. Fascists have always claimed they are on the side of freedom.
Show threadVeirling | #MMIWG #LandBackJan 13, 2023
@protecttruth I like the term "liberation" much, much better. "Freedom" always gives me the creeps.