The distorted "freedom" of the truck convoys: "A huge number of Americans want a dictatorship"

[Nevilledog]

https://www.salon.com/2022/02/24/the-distorted-freedom-of-the-truck-convoys-a-huge-number-of-americans-want-a-dictatorship/

The Republican-fascists and other "conservatives" have convinced themselves and their followers that freedom is the same thing as license.

Real freedom involves a sense of responsibility to others, obligation to the common good and respect for reason and the truth. Moreover, as historian Timothy Snyder presciently warned in 2017, "to abandon facts is to abandon freedom" and "post-truth is pre-fascism."

License is a belief that one can act without consequences — and that any attempts to limit that dangerous behavior and its negative impact on others is some type of "tyranny" or "dictatorship" or "oppression." This crude and debased version of "freedom" as embraced by fascists and other members of today's right wing and "conservative" movement also emphasizes the importance of force and the ability of the powerful to force their will on the less powerful with impunity.

Here social dominance behavior is taken as ultimate proof of the merits of one's freedom claims instead of as evidence of how anti-social and other anti-human behavior undermines and ultimately destroys the types of bonds, relationships and mutual respect for human rights and human dignity that are foundational for real freedom in a healthy polity.

Liberals, progressives, Democrats, "traditional" conservatives and others who believe in the liberal democratic tradition are committed to abstract principles and ideals. The Republican-fascists and other members of the global neofascist movement are goal-oriented nihilists and pragmatists who live in the realm of the here and now and where might ultimately makes everything right.

*snip*

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. Self-styled "freedom fighter" Republiqons and convoyists love their autocratic prez Putin. . . nt

[vercetti2021]

2. 1/3 want a dictatorship

The other 2/3 will kick their asses from here to hell and back.

[SheltieLover]

3. Kicking for visability

[Bernardo de La Paz]

4. "sense of responsibility to others": they are self-centered narcissistic whiny snowflakes. . . nt

[Hekate]

5. KnR

[chocolatpi]

6. Link for list of democracies, USA not in top 10 under the previous guy.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/democracy-countries

snip...
The 10 most democratic nations in the world (2020):
Norway (9.87)
Iceland (9.58)
Sweden (9.39)
New Zealand (9.26)
Finland (9.25)
Ireland (9.24)
Canada (9.22)
Denmark (9.22)
Australia (9.09)
Switzerland (9.03)
The United States scored 7.92 in 2020 and again landed in the "flawed democracy" category, where it has resided since falling from "full democracy" in 2016. Intolerance of COVID-19 restrictions, distrust in the government, bipartisan gridlock, and especially the increasing ideological polarization between democrats and republicans are all cited as contributors to the lower score. For the full list of all 167 countries and their 2020 scores, see the table further down this page.

Is the United States a democracy, a republic, or both?
Political terminology can be difficult to parse. A frequent topic of debate in modern circles is whether the United States is actually a republic rather than a democracy. In truth, the most accurate answer may be that the United States is both a republic and a democracy—but a specific type of each. The lynchpin of this debate is the fact that republics are very similar to direct democracies, but are different in one very important way.
....snip

[Caliman73]

7. This is the problem with poor education and the use of mythology.

America has never dealt honestly with the problems in our history, especially around White Supremacy. It is true that "traditional conservatives" gave lip service to the concepts of "liberal democracy" and thought. The problem is that Conservatism as a whole, has been both for and against democracy. Conservatives tend to believe in a hierarchy, which is antithetical, at the end, to democracy.

The idea of "American Exceptionalism" has really poisoned our discourse. The whole idea that America can do no wrong creates the feeling in the most ignorant among us, that our opinion is equal to valid facts in the contrary. Our decided lack of critical thinking skills training in school and pushback on the scientific method also adds to the problem. People are not able to detect logical fallacies or to judge credible research vs. opinion.