re: Interestingly, and I think importantly, we have forgotten 9/10/01

Before you throw out your “nope” let’s recognize that my statement was regarding historical context.
I would say that if we rank in the middle or slightly better than western nations on a freedoms index in current times, then when you compare us to societies of the past 2000 years I would guess we have more freedoms than many.

Also not saying the deep state and current admin etc are not severely flawed and threatening. However the OP referred to life as the common man lives it, and my point was that many people I know have their quality of life affected more by fear of losing liberty than and their desire to fret over it on social media than by any actual law or government influence. I would also say that for me personally, I find more of an threat with social media and it’s associated psychological anesthesia or destruction of basic human empathy than I do with government overreach….. if I’m considering it’s affect on my quality of life. The fact that one of the main concerns on this thread is not being able to say goodbye at the airport gait supports that.