Posted on Jun 10, 2016
MSG Anthony DiFondi
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Over the years, America has become increasing more regulated. You need a license to hunt, fish, drive, protest, etc. Freedom of speech has become lost to the politically correct minions who are offended by everything (probably even offended by this post). Religion is looked down upon. You have to buy health insurance. You need to pay governments money to modify your own home. Are we still free?
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Responses: 13
MSgt Richard Rountree
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A lost concept? No. One that has been perverted by those that want us to be less free. Definitely.

Live Free or Die! Want my freedom? Come and take it. Remember, you can keep what you can defend.
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SPC Darren Koele
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That is a big question requiring a book, perhaps a series, to truly answer. However, there are some areas where liberty is chipped away, ironically, under the guise freedom. But what is being disguised is also know as the "collective good". What has become popular as of late? The idea that health care is a right and therefore "we must all make sacrifices". The idea that college should be free because it allegedly benefits society as a whole. This concept that schools/education is a sacred cow because the children are our future (but ignores the fact that we pay more per student than most developed countries). Then there is climate change. And many more.
What do these have in common? They all require money, YOUR money. The more taxes you pay, the less economic freedom you have. Economic freedom is very much a part of individual liberty. Which brings me to my next point. Individual liberty is very much being strained. Nearly every argument I have pertaining to how something impacts my life, I am pushed aside with the "greater good" argument, which is code for, "you don't matter, it's better for society (i.e. the collective)." It is my belief that without individual liberty, liberty itself does not exist.
Look at some of the news lately. There are people that want to virtually make it a crime to speak against climate change. There are people who will curse you for asking why my neighbor's health is my obligation (especially when, in the same breath, those same people tell you that you have no right to an opinion concerning their body). Worse than making people pay for the health care of others, is then forcing them to buy their own insurance after the rates increase due to government mandates. Even anti-discrimination laws have proven to be discriminatory because they focus more forced tolerance in society than individual freedom. Think about it, in a truly free society, a baker (or any other business for that matter), can choose who or who not to serve or what events. In our less free society, the government mandates that you must serve everyone despite your Constitutional rights or personal beliefs. I would rather face the wrath of a free market than endure strangling mandates of an overbearing government.
Eminent domain and property taxes are some of the biggest rackets the government has ever come up with.
While we do have plenty of liberty left, we have lost much; it just doesn't seem like it because the losses seem so miniscule in the overall scheme of things (a little regulation here, a little taxation there). What concerns me most is focus on collectivism over individual liberty. We were not born to serve the collective. To do so means we are nothing more than slaves which, as we already know, is not freedom though it seems many are willing to themselves in those chains.
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Cpl Justin Goolsby
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Are we still free, yes I believe we are. I wake up in the morning and I go to work a job I chose. No one picked it for me. I'm getting paid a wage I agreed upon. I'm not working for food or forced labor. When I complete my work day, I'm free to go home and spend my off time in a manner of my choosing. I can go for a long drive. Spend time with my children. Go to the movies. No one is choosing my paths for me.

Do we have some regulations, of course. Hunting and fishing aren't exactly rights, but they do need to be regulated in order to preserve populations by decreasing overfishing or overhunting species into extinction. Driving is a privilege, and not a right. Motorists should have to adequately demonstrate that they know how to operate a motor vehicle before allowing them permission to be on the road.

Religion might be looked down upon, but no one is holding a torch to your feet and demanding you renounce your God. We are still free to choose to worship or not worship as we see fit. We can be the most devout worshipper, or the most devout nonbeliever.

Do I believe there has been some government overreach, yes of course. But are we still free. Yes. I am not worried about my family disappearing in the middle of the night due to something I might say online.
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