Comment by Agraillo | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Agraillo | Hacker News Reader

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Let's start with the Freedom House index [1]

    Finland 100/100
    .....
    United States 84/100
    .....
    China 9/100
    ......
    Turkmenistan 1/100

Before claiming a hidden agenda or conflicts of interest of those behind the organization, first evaluate their methodology [2]. You may even agree with the methodology but argue that the actual numbers were calculated incorrectly

> the ability to walk outside without ever having the chance of randomly shot dead

This is a good measure of risk perception, and you can even use it as one of the freedom scores. The problem is that it is hard to measure. For example, consider if this measure is based on a poll: if an act of terrorism occurs just before the poll is taken, the score will definitely drop. However, in countries where such news is heavily suppressed (e.g., the former USSR), the scores may appear perfect.

[1] https://freedomhouse.org/country/scores

[2] https://freedomhouse.org/reports/freedom-world/freedom-world...

  The problem is that it is hard to measure.

I feel it almost every day for myself and for my family in the US. I don't feel it at all when I visit China, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, etc. Does that help?

I recently saw someone say that in the US, you have freedom of speech but nothing changes. In China, you don't have freedom of speech but things change.

> I feel it almost every day for myself and for my family in the US

Based on your use of the word 'fill,' the Gallup World Poll seems like a more appropriate ranking because it comes directly from the people. Even your dissatisfaction as a resident of the US is likely reflected in their analysis [1]. However, the situation in China is somewhat more complicated at present. Telephone and face-to-face interviews were permitted until 2023 [2], but the 2023 survey already relied only on web interviews, which correlates with reports of Gallup withdrawing from China [3]. This likely brings us back to the question of different faces of freedom - specifically, the ability to conduct surveys or polls without being accused of distorting the country’s image.

Both Freedom House and Gallup methodologies may be flawed, but without them or similar we would have to rely solely on anecdotal evidence, which is insufficient imho

[1] https://news.gallup.com/poll/660440/land-free-fewer-american...

[2] https://www.gallup.com/file/services/177797/World_Poll_Datas...

[3] https://archive.ph/v5F9a (US consultancy Gallup withdraws from China (FT))

My point, in case it wasn't obvious, is that freedom is not the same to everyone. Being able to own a gun will give you a higher score but having a chance of being shot randomly just by stepping outside is the opposite of freedom.

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