On Freedom

Snyder introduces factuality as the fourth form of freedom, arguing that liberty requires a shared grasp of reality. He begins by contrasting negative freedom—imagined as liberation through removing a single obstacle—with positive freedom, which relies on factual knowledge of the world. He cites examples of negative freedom’s illusions: Marx’s call to abolish property, Hitler’s plan to eliminate Jews, anticolonial demands to remove imperialists, and American libertarian appeals to eliminate government. These oversimplifications, he argues, obscure the terrain that matters: how people think and evaluate the world. Without knowledge of biology, chemistry, physics, and history, negative freedom collapses into fantasy and makes people vulnerable to manipulation.

Snyder underscores that life precedes liberty: Jefferson’s “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” (187) places existence first. Knowing what life is and how it works anchors the possibility of freedom. He contrasts the lie of endless economic growth, which denies ecological limits, with factual science about energy and the universe. Fossil fuel interests spread falsehoods about climate change because their profits depend on denial, while renewable sources like solar and fusion energy are harder to centralize and align better with democratic values. A truthful approach to energy, Snyder contends, could provide a freer future.