Well, I'm not sure. To me, the term is warmed over Cold War vernacular; the "free" in those days sort of meant the democracies that were allied with USA, against the USSR and its allies. But in that era the term always had more to do with politics than it did with how much actual freedom a particular society enjoyed. Thus, during the Cold War it was always partly propaganda.
Today, with that conflict 30 years behind us, the term may have more to do with how important "truth" is within a given society. Because, without truth, democracy can't breathe. And, without democracy, how much freedom, based on people having genuine and equal rights, can truly exist?
When people of different persuasions can't at least agree to stand on some verifiable facts -- reality -- problems just don't get solved. Moreover, when citizens have no faith in their elections' integrity the government will always lack legitimacy, which will encourage chaos that invites autocracy.
In 2022 there are politicians, pundits and other blowhards in the USA who appear to favor an autocratic system with the audacity to overthrow elections. They sell tested lies their followers like to buy. Marinating those lies in hate tends to make them easier to swallow.
Speaking of politics and so-called "alternative facts," now honest conservatives who want to remain loyal to the Republican Party have a new problem: After a few senators hurled their absurd facilitator-of-child-abuse accusations at Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, during her confirmation hearing, Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene recently proclaimed that three Republican senators are "pro-pedophile" -- Romney, Murkowski and Collins -- because they ended up voting "yes," along with the Senate's 50 Democrats, to confirm Judge Jackson's appointment.
With the QAnon wing of the GOP chiming in, to support a scurrilous effort underway to depict all Democrats as being knee-deep in child porn, well, it looks like Pizzagate Redux is the new mid-terms propaganda strategy. Can the aforementioned "honest conservatives" really go along with that bizarre scheme?
Truth is all about reality. So the attacks on truth, itself, we've seen in recent years are helping to smother democracy in this country and other countries. Moreover, the notion that such a thing as the "free world" really exists today is seeming more and more fictitious.
"Free" as opposed to what?
Tomorrow, the USA needs a political movement that clearly asserts that a reverence for pure truth is at its core. Under its tent should be everyone who agrees that truth is more important than ideology, or religion, or ethnicity, or class, or any of the other handy things that so many seekers of power routinely use to set groups of people at each others' throats.
It ought to include Democrats and Republicans. Libertarians and Greens. Dogs and cats.
Bottom line: No truth, no democracy.
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