You not only hate freedom, but just by being in your state you're decreasing the freedom. You're a freedom suck. In fact, there are charts to prove it.
See there? States with the most Democratic voters are over five total freedom points down from the most Republican states. What's a freedom point? Well, it's just about the most important thing ever. It's a based on a completely non-ideological study of personal freedom in the 50 states. Produced by a non-ideological assistant prof of politics at Texas State University - San Marcos whose previous work includes the non-ideological "New Yorkers shackled and chained by high cost of living and government regulations." His partner in this non-ideological work was the non-ideological founder of the Free State Project, a favorite of the non-ideological Ayn Rand followers.
How did this dispassionate, scientific pair determine that you -- yes, you over there -- are bad for freedom? First, your state taxes too much. Taxes are the number one item in determining how much freedom you have. Then you spend too much. Spending is the number two threat to your freedom. Hold on now, I can hear you saying that you're getting hit twice for the same thing. But you're not. On this scale, if the state took your money, but didn't spend it, you're more free. Because... let's move on.
Next up is education. You might think that states which offered a lot of educational opportunities -- scholarships, magnet schools, that kind of the thing -- would be more free. Wrong! That just shows how anti-freedom you are. Freedom has nothing to do with opportunity. Educational freedom is measured by your right to opt out of the oppressive statist public educational system. If you think your kid gets all the education he needs from Spongebob and the puzzle on the back of the Cocoa Puffs box, you're a freedom lover. States that have such onerous burdens as universal kindergarten are one step closer to Stalin.
Then comes gun control. Naturally, states that try to regulate guns in any way get a big black mark on this. You know who rocks? Montana rocks. When a federal law was passed prohibiting handguns within 100' of a school except for law officers, Montana passed a law that said every citizen was a law officer. Brownie points! And proof that you can get more freedom if you pass the right kind of laws to fight the power in D.C.
Labor regulation is up next. Any state that gives unions the right to interfere with good, honest business folk trying to do their job. Unfree. Likewise for any mucking around with wages, safety, etc. Does your state require business to contribute to workers compensation in case of an injury? That's fascism, brother.
Health care freedom is next. Meaning the freedom of insurance companies to set their rates and services as they want, unfettered by stinking socialists who want to expand coverage to more people. Does your state make you provide COBRA to laid off workers? Bad. Do you require medical workers to have a license? It must always be 1984 where you live.
But to prove to you that this is a completely non-ideological study, there are also factors in there to declare states more free if they allow civil unions or medical marijuana -- factors that together almost equal home schooling alone. And there's the freedom to smoke wherever you want and the freedom to not have any smoker's protection laws. The freedom to give as much as you want to political campaigns. The freedom to eat endangered species three meals a day. Overall, one quarter of your freedom is determined by taxes and spending. Another quarter of your freedom is regulations (a wetland program in your state, commie?)
In general, if you live in a state where your kid is required to wear a bicycle helmet, you can't light up a stogie at dinner, medical personal are required to have a license, and workers are protected by safety laws -- you have surrendered your freedom. So, you won't be too shocked to hear that liberal hotbeds like New York and California are the least free places in America. Which explains why nobody lives there, and why the freedom center in South Dakota is so overrun.
Kind of what you'd expect when one of the study's authors says he practices "neo-medievalism" and longs for a return to disorganized city-states. In other words, by this scale, Somalia is the ideal free society.