Common Confusion on Freedom

From John Hood, president of the John Locke Foundation:

How dare he exercise his freedom of choice? He’s denying me my freedom to choose!

Judging by a range of controversies in North Carolina right now, plenty of people exhibit just this sort of confusion about the political definition of freedom. That’s the first problem, by the way: when I say the political definition of freedom, I mean to distinguish it from other, everyday uses of the term. But the distinction is often lost.