think how the term 'freedom' is defined in your hypothetical social system would benefit your post and clear up some lingering questions

I generally do not like to use the term "freedom" very much. It is one of the most overused misused and vague words that we have in our language. Sure the individualistic approach I want for socialism borrows a lot from people who write "freedom" on their flags.

Well, for the sake of communication, especially with our US-friends it might actually help if I provide some kind of defintion of freedom. I just think that I can only tell you what I associate with freedom, but that is actually very case dependent and hard to state in a logical way.

Freedom as a construct is maybe impossible to formulate in a logical way, so I just want to give people the tools to define their own freedom however they desire.

automatically amended to "Freedom is being able to do what you want to do, as long as it doesn't hurt anybody else."

That feeling when you realize you talk to a fellow German - I think we all learned that definition in school :D

I would also point out as someone who has spent a lot of time in the German speaking realm, that left and right in the US and EU are understood very differently.

You actually provide a very nice angle explaining the difference between "left vs right" in the States and Europe. To me it has always been "Those Muricanos really don't understand what political left and right actually means", but I think your explanation is much more objective and less hostile than my reasoning on this topic :D.

Thank you very much for being part of the discussion!