MANY ON THE LEFT VIEW THIS AS A FEATURE, NOT A BUG: US plummets in annual freedom ranking for one big reason. “The index’s main results point to a new question: Why did global freedom plummet in 2020? Well, things were already trending slightly downward, but the COVID-19 pandemic—and governments’ subsequent authoritarian policies—drove a huge decline in freedom. From mask mandates to lockdowns, the ways the government restricted peoples’ freedom in 2020 are too vast to put into words.”