US Freedom ranking #17 (of course) by the "Cato Institute" (who cares what they think lol)
Q-incidence!
So this was published on Dec. 17th (^_^) and I'm not sure if it already made the rounds here. I heard it on X22 today... (yes I listen to him SUE ME! haha)
Just, you know, the thing. 17. Such a pesky number. :P
https://www.cato.org/blog/personal-freedom-decline-worldwide-new-human-freedom-index
I'm replying to you directly, because I've seen you post pretty well thought out and insightful content here before, and I think you're misreading this article
I posted other replies in the thread that give my thoughts on CATO if you're interested.
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Perhaps I’m just fed up with these kinds of “institutes” and “international organizations.”
It just all seems like commodities to be bought and sold. Or influenced.
So that’s why their “ranking” is all the more amusing- it’s not a culmination of facts processed through a mathematical formula resulting in that rank number. IE a coincidence. On that particular date either.
Doesn’t make sense, loss of credibility.
I agree with you on this in general. A lot of these think tanks are gross. Hello Poynter Institute! Again, I do NOT think Cato falls into this camp. In fact, I think the opposite, so made it a point to stand up for them. I can probably count the number of insitutions I feel this way about on one hand...
And agree, there's barely any meat on this particular blog post. If I was unfamiliar with the organization and their work in the past I'd be very skeptical as well. They literally basically said nothing except the results of the study. You're absolutely right in questioning it as it's presented.
No disrespect to the OP, but it would have been better to link to the actual study with data and methodology than this recap.
But it happens!
Tldr: don't throw Cato out with the bathwater. :)