You're looking at Less Wrong's discussion board. This includes all posts, including those that haven't been promoted to the front page yet. For more information, see About Less Wrong.

Douglas_Knight comments on If you can see the box, you can open the box - Less Wrong Discussion

49 Post author: ThePrussian 26 February 2015 10:36AM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (108)

You are viewing a single comment's thread.

Comment author: Douglas_Knight 26 February 2015 08:21:14PM 1 point [-]

Freedom is an abstraction. People mean different things by it. Bin Laden largely doesn't use the word. He objects to a small list of specific practices. He objects to the American freedom to be immoral, but almost everyone restricts freedom, such as the freedom to kill. Indeed, in a passage you quote, "You are a nation that permits acts of immorality, and you consider them to be pillars of personal freedom," he explicitly says that the problem is scope of personal freedom, not the concept of freedom.

You might say that the principal freedom of the USA is freedom of religion. I think bin Laden would hate that. But does he notice it? He seems to think of America as a country of bad Christians, not a country of atheists.