One of the most vital truths to grasp if you wish to cleave yourself from the poison that is modern thought is to recognise that Man is not born free or equal. No two persons are wholly the same, expect in the eyes of the material sciences within which we are all carbon based life forms animated by a series of electrical impulses. Man is not a science experiment he cannot be equated to another like sets of numbers, weights, or measures. This is not to say that every man is his own unique snowflake ala The Boomer Truth Regime, within the modern mass of men there are those who are much more equal than others but this equalness really only exists in contrast to the elites said mass serves.
Man is neither free, in birth he has no choice over his locale, his parents, their state of wealth or health, or whether he himself is born of an ill condition. Through life he has little to no choice over what drives him, or how said drives are manifested into the means required for self-preservation and proliferation. Man is a being of hierarchy, a grand metaphysic present throughout history; from the lowest serf, to the Lord of the land, the Judge of the highest court, the King of the nation, all the way up to God as the most high. All are subject to one another in a chain of order that gives every man his place.
It is worth further considering that freedom is a negative state, in common parlance it is always brought up in reference to the freedom from something, the lessening of some felt oppression. Yet even this is faulty, what use is freedom in the abstract? Freedom from one form of government is only the gateway to the next form of government, for their will always be the rulers and the ruled, there is no other way. Subsequently freedom in the positive form is no such thing, it is instead the imposition of one individual, or groups, will upon others. You could be right in saying your are free to carry out such an imposition, our current ruling class have done this and will continue to do so, it is the primary characteristic that makes them a ruling class. However I doubt many people would recognise this as freedom as they know it, the freedom to will others irrespective of their protests or opposition.
Freedom, if not used in this positive ruling from, then is really little else than the ability to wallow forever in indifference. It is then no wonder that any general appeal to free speech comes from those who are unwilling to impress upon people a righteous set of ideas, beyond murmurings about the marketplace of ideas and giving bad ideas a dose of sunlight. Those who are truly driven by a set of ideas or values instead wish to see them be free to flourish at the expense of others, there can be no other way.
Freedom then for the modern man only matters in that man is free to serve a rightful master, or in the words of Ludovici, he is free to serve the impulses of a rightful bondage. If man is lucky enough to do so he might latterly hope that he serves in an equal capacity to his fellow man, however we know deep down if he is worth his salt he will strive to be exemplary.
“It may be taken for granted, then, that strength and greatness know nothing of freedom. The strong man is not free; the great man is not free ;-nor for that matter, as history or the observation of our fellows can show, do they wish to be free. Only weakness is apparently free, or is conscious of desiring freedom; because, having no impetus to drive it willy nilly in any given direction, it appears to be able to choose its own direction. Thus only weakness can even desire freedom.” Anthony Ludovici - The False Assumptions of Democracy