Freedom. A word championed by many but understood by few. It’s a term thrown around carelessly, often stripped of its true meaning and twisted into an empty slogan. People love to say they support “freedom,” but when you dig deeper, you’ll find their definition doesn’t line up with reality. In fact, most people are more aligned with statism and central control than true liberty. It’s not just in one country—it’s a worldwide phenomenon.
Where there is private property, there is freedom. Without it, there can only be coercion and conflict. Yet, the meaning of private property is constantly under attack, redefined by those who seek to impose their own vision of society. They replace clear definitions with vague, misleading terms that warp the understanding of fundamental concepts. When language becomes muddled, so does thought. The confusion is no accident—there’s an entire propaganda machine designed to blur the lines, and it’s been remarkably effective.
Take capitalism, for example. It’s one of the most misrepresented ideas in modern discourse. For decades, almost every social ill has been pinned on capitalism—poverty, inequality, exploitation. But this flies in the face of history. Before capitalism, most of humanity lived in misery and deprivation. It was only through the rise of private enterprise and free markets that prosperity spread across the globe. So why does capitalism get the blame? Because it’s an easy scapegoat, a convenient target for those nursing feelings of envy and resentment.
Ludwig von Mises had a term for this psychological phenomenon: the “Fourier complex.” It describes the mentality of people who believe that because they are intellectually superior, they should naturally be more successful. The market doesn’t reward intelligence alone—it rewards value. A barista serving coffee to millions of customers does more to improve lives than an academic paper on gender pronouns. These envious individuals, feeling unappreciated, wrap themselves in delusions of grandeur and dream of ruling society as philosopher kings.
Division of labor is the cornerstone of our prosperity. Most people can’t even imagine what life would be like without it. If you could only consume what you produced, how much would you have? Would you even be able to sustain yourself? The truth is, many would be reduced to bare subsistence, struggling just to survive. Forget your smartphones and laptops—without trade, even basic necessities would become scarce. The world population would plummet if everyone lived in isolation, trying to be self-sufficient.
Freedom and prosperity come from respecting private property. When individuals are free to own and exchange their goods and services, competition flourishes, raising standards of living for everyone. Monopolies, contrary to popular belief, aren’t the natural result of capitalism. They’re the product of state intervention—privileges granted by the government to certain favored firms. That’s statism in action, and it’s the exact opposite of what true free markets stand for.
The propaganda army won’t tell you this. They are too entrenched in their ideology, too delusional to see the contradictions. They preach equality while pushing policies that lead to dependency and control. Overcoming this isn’t easy. It requires relentless self-education, the courage to question popular narratives, and the will to defend freedom in its true form.