WHAT THE LOSS OF FREEDOM FEELS LIKE

Lebanese people witnessed their country’s collapse under a plethora of crises: the implosion of its economy, the enormous blast at the Beirut port, and of course the pandemic, all of it wrapped up in endemically corrupt politics and meddling by foreign powers, notably Iran. Decades of progress since the end of the Lebanese civil war in 1990 have been erased, and thousands of Lebanese are rushing for the exit.

Many in Lebanon today say that things are worse now than during the civil war. How could anyone feel that things are worse today? Like what the f*** just happened?