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560 points whatsupdog | 4 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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perihelions ◴[] No.45167153[source]
Hard-earned freedoms are wasted on societies who don't have memories of what it took to earn them. Freedom is a ratchet: slides easily and frictionlessly one way, and offers immense resistance in the other.

This is all so disheartening.

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cedws ◴[] No.45167299[source]
I’m not aware of a single nation where the ratchet is loosening. It appears freedom is being eroded everywhere. The most disheartening thing is that nothing works to stop it. There are countries where millions of people have protested, but in time the protests always fizzle or are stamped out, and things continue on the same trajectory.
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1. screye ◴[] No.45168793[source]
I've found it to be the other war around.

Protests succeed, and they crown (usually conservative) authoritarians as the new king. Arab spring & Bangladesh are the 2 recent examples.

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2. isk517 ◴[] No.45169402[source]
George Washington's single greatest feat was not making the office of the president just another way of saying 'king'.
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3. achenet ◴[] No.45169565[source]
yes, and he set a great example by doing so.

Honestly, would be nice for modern day leaders to have that kind of commitment to collaborative institutions.

I feel like some of them are just trying to openly accumulate power for personal gain.

4. lossolo ◴[] No.45170114[source]
True! In fact, Augustus was the first to master that trick in Rome, he concentrated king like power in himself while carefully avoiding the title of "king" calling himself "princeps" instead.