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Do You Live in a Free State or a Fear State?

Do You Live in a Free State or a Fear State?

How you know the game you’re in ... rather than the one you have always known.

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Searching for Hope
May 21, 2025
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Lincoln Square
Lincoln Square
Do You Live in a Free State or a Fear State?
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By Trygve Olson

Over years of work abroad, I learned there are two types of systems: free states and fear states. This distinction wasn’t theoretical. I learned it over years of work in countries where democracy was under siege — from Belarus to Ukraine, from Serbia to Georgia, from Cambodia to Venezuela. I sat with dissidents who had been jailed, traine…

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Searching for Hope
Strategist. Pro-democracy fighter. Father. Wisconsinite. Green Bay Packers owner. Founding Lincoln Project advisor. Girl Dad, who writes about democracy, life lessons, and strategy, because we all need hope.
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