Personal Freedom Index

[America Needs R'hllor]

Personally, I'm probably at 70%-80%: I'm able to criticize my government in the harshest terms possible and say everything I want to say. Economically, my parents are in a bad situation which constricts some freedom, but I myself is able to be self-sufficient and fairly stable, so I can do most things (and constrict myself to remain in this spot). The biggest problem derives from my sexual orientation- I cannot marry in my country, I have to seek surrogacy abroad and adoptions are very hard to do. Personally, the homophobia of my society and my parents' reluctance means that me and my boyfriend cannot do very, very basic things for couples- we can't hold hands or show affection publicly in many places, we can't visit each other's homes, we can't live together in many places without fear and more. There is the pandemic situation, which previously restricted some freedom (we've mostly opened up), but while it technically does this I was very supportive of these measures so I wouldn't say they harmed the score much.

However, I'm well aware that I'm in a good situation. My country's economic inequality is pretty substantial so there are a lot of people whose economic freedom (not in the way defined by classical liberals that I just don't agree with) is very constrained by poverty. And then there's a very glaring problem- the military occupation in the West Bank. The freedom level of Palestinians is much lower than mine, and while I'd say their situation is better than in many neighbouring nations, it's still horrible for anyone who believes in the basic concepts of democracy and human rights. There is the fact that the West Bank is not part of Israel and is ruled by the Palestinian Authority, and there is the very delicate security reality, but a lot of it is under the military occupation of Israel and thus cannot go ignored in such a question. Answered 60%-70%. If annexations happen, it goes down to 50%-60%, and could keep going down.