If we refuse to name it for what it is, we risk letting that evil flourish once again: only with subtler methods and sanitized rhetoric. To recognize these invisible chains for what they are, we must remove the illusions, unravel the deceit, and confront the philosophical framework that sustains them. Frederick Douglass, who endured actual chattel slavery, cautioned that if one man’s liberty is stolen, everyone’s freedom stands in peril. 15 The brutality suffered by Douglass stands alone in its savagery.

— Neal Flesher, Modern Chains (Chapter 1)

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