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Comment by reaperman | Hacker News Reader

The ~~conservative~~ libertarian Cato institute recently ranked[0] Texas dead last for personal freedoms among all 50 US states.

0: https://www.freedominthe50states.org/personal

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Interesting read, thanks for the link. Puzzling how differently people across the political spectrum interpret the concept of "freedom."

I think this is really my favorite takeaway from the Cato Institute's study/ranking/index. Despite being #50 in personal freedom, Texas ranked #6 for most economic freedom. But even for things like "Personal travel freedom", half the sub-ranking was based on ALPR presence and seat belt laws. Somehow Texas ranked dead last for that, even though they allow people to ride in the back of pickup trucks without any seatbelt, and that's illegal in a lot of other states.

It's nice to see these comprehensive categorizations, where I can prompt myself to ask "How much do I care about this particular freedom vs. that one?"

Cato's a pretty well-known libertarian think tank. Not saying they are right or wrong or that your choice of words was intentional, but calling them "The conservative Cato Institute" feels a little iffy.

"Libertarian think tank says Texas sucks for personal freedom" has very different vibe than "Conservative think tank says Texas sucks for personal freedom"

but also, never trust Cato - https://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/10/never-trust-the-cato-...

American libertarianism, of which Cato is perhaps the premier example, is a somewhat extreme right wing belief system. Despite not being high control authoritarian like the other strains of conservativism in America, it is still decidedly conservative. We just have an interesting taxonomy of conservative ideologies here, from the dominant strain of theocratic fascism currently in vogue with the GOP, to the anti-regulation Galts like Ron/Rand Paul.

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