How so? That may have been true a few years ago during the COVID lockdowns, but as we've recently seen, Americans will often punish that behavior heavily at the poll booth
It wasn't even true then. The COVID lockdowns were child's play compared to the abuses of freedom in the US's past, and they're a mere suggestion compared to the lockdowns in other places around the world.
Anyone who thinks the government asking you sternly to "please stay inside" is an abuse of power must have fallen asleep in American history class. Or have never talked to their grandparents about politics in the past. There are still people alive in the US who were imprisoned due to their ethnicity.
Good luck explaining this to folks who have simple mental model of their own freedoms and that's about it, not much room for empathy in us-vs-them mentality.
If something has to be worse than slavery in order to qualify as an abuse of freedom, then nothing is going to qualify ever.
> Anyone who thinks the government asking you sternly to "please stay inside" is an abuse of power
American states jailed pastors, fined churches, and charged individuals with violations of 'laws' against things like worshipping together or assembling.
> must have fallen asleep in American history class.
Those were isolated enough incidents to be newsworthy, and public health measures have plenty of precedence in US history. Whether or not you think they are an abuse of power, they are absolutely not indicative of a decline in freedom. And I'm not even talking about slavery, I'm talking about the 20th century.
Heck, over my lifetime I have seen vaccine mandates go from something that was normal, uncontroversial, and you'd be seen as a weird radical if you were against them -- to a hot topic of public debate.
