Calvinism vs Arminianism

Yes we are predestined but our predestination involves a synergism of circumstances as well as God's work in our hearts to make us humble and to open our spiritual eyes and ears.
Yes. We have free will but most Calvinists oversimplify and don't understand it.
Calvinism or Reform theology may be the closest conventional systematic theology to the truth BUT it is still too simplistic even though it is rightfully more complex than Open Theism, or Wesleyan or Arminian or any semi-Pelagian view... or the heretical universal reconciliation (which is cookie-cutter demonic deception).

The problem here is that the simple answer is the wrong answer.
Freewill and soteriology are two very distinct subjects.
Yes. We are elected by God.

The prescient view of election or the semi-Pelagian view of election isn't election at all..
it is foreknowledge of self-election which gives credit to the sinner rather than all of the credit to God.
The Augustinian view of election is the only correct view of election... but the question is "how?"
Calvinists (or Reform theologians) as complex and as many distinctions they (often properly) make.... still have an overly simplistic view of freewill.
They often believe in limited free will due to sinful nature.

Their simplistic understanding is that humans have a will that is governed by a sinful nature.
There is really no such thing as limited free will. Either the human will is controlled by the mind or it isn't. Either it is free free will or it is NOT free will.
Freewill is the internal ability of the mind to freely choose between two or more options.
The problem is that you need to clearly see and understand those options before you will WANT to choose them.
You can also have carnal wants of the flesh and pride that condemn you and/or hold you back.
Sometimes you need to be humbled.

God's Holy Spirit is necessary for the believer to WANT to surrender your life to Jesus Christ in the truth of His Deity.
There are all sorts of circumstances of poverty and fear of death or innocent childhood or youth that make us more ripe for the gospel. We need to humble ourselves like little children in humility before God... all of the circumstances in our life can motivate us prompted by the internal call or conviction of the Holy Spirit
The keyword in the OP is the word "predestined" and what does it mean. If I remember in Greek it is marking or laying out borders...or land territories beforehand.
But God's determination involves a synergism of all human free will and when we were born and where and who raises us and how long we live, what and who we come in contact with, etc.

God elects us through both His Holy Spirit's conviction and the sum total of all circumstances.

It's not that we are dead like a corpse (that's what many Calvinists get wrong with their analogies) but rather we are spiritually dead and SEPARATED out of fellowship with Holy God and we need to spiritually see and spiritually hear this. We are separated (death) and blind and deaf. We need to be enabled to be able to see the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In this way, we will WANT to choose God if we are humbled in our hearts like a child. Then we become born-again.
It's God's work (salvation) but it is a synergistic monergism and not just a monergism regardless of circumstances.

Circumstances matter...
and God allows those and knew them before they happened.

This is a huge topic that can't be answered in a Facebook comment... because the simple answer on this topic and how we are elected...would be the wrong answer.
Sure we can simply say "election."

But that doesn't address "how?" we are elected through the sum total of all circumstances and through the enabling of the Holy Spirit to see the truth of the gospel.
Freewill and salvation are really two different subjects.

Lindsay Harold:
Here are some things I affirm, in unison with Calvinists:
-We cannot come to God on our own, but must be enabled by God to even desire Him.
-God has no obligation to offer salvation to anyone. It is purely grace that He does so at all. And He does not necessarily call all people with equal force at all times.
-Salvation of everyone is not God's highest priority. If it were, then God could do more to reveal Himself to them, yet He does not because He has other priorities.
-The just punishment of the wicked brings glory to God. We cannot escape bringing God glory as that is our purpose. Whether we receive salvation or judgment, we bring God glory.
-God does not need us in any way. He is sufficient in Himself. He does not have a human-shaped hole in His heart that only we can fill.
-The likelihood of salvation does vary from place to place and in different time periods. As a child born to Christian parents in a largely Christian-influenced culture, I had much more grace given to me than someone born to Muslim parents in the Middle East or Hindu parents in India, for example.
However, I also differ from Calvinists on a number of issues:

-God does not play favorites. He doesn't pick people for salvation with no choice on their part nor send any to damnation without having a real opportunity to be saved at some point in their lives. There is no nepotism with God. You're not automatically in because of who you know or who your parents were. God is no respecter of persons, as the Bible says. This is not because God is obligated to be fair, but because God chooses to offer salvation to all and enable all to come as that brings Him great glory. He gets all the credit for the offer, even if some reject it. And His punishment of those who could have been saved just shows all the more how much the damned deserve their fate and how merciful and just God really is.
-The unequal distribution of the saved in time and place is a result of one of God's higher priorities (over having all saved), which is for us to have an opportunity to cooperate with God in the process of saving the world. God has entrusted the spread of the gospel to Christians. He is certainly involved, of course, but He has largely put the task in our hands. We are His hands and feet to impact the world. He has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the strong, as 1 Corinthians says. It is through the humble preaching of the gospel by fallible humans that God brings grace to the lost. That is an awesome responsibility and an absolutely backwards kind of approach by the world's thinking. He could just dazzle us with an amazing display of raw power, but instead He sends ordinary people like me to be His representatives in the world. And because it's a real responsibility, not just a sham, eternity is actually affected by how well we Christians do our jobs. As the scripture says, God has ordained good works for us to do. They actually produce real, eternal fruit in the lives of those we bring to Christ through our message (or those we didn't reach because we didn't bother).

-The reason any are saved is that God chose to grant salvation to some. God could have chosen to grant salvation completely arbitrarily. God could have chosen to grant salvation by bloodline or national boundaries or sex or height or whatever. There are any number of criteria God could have chosen to use. But what the Bible teaches is that God grants salvation on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ alone. Faith is a choice to trust that God will save despite the fact that we are completely undeserving and to rest in His promise to save on this basis. Having faith does not earn salvation. It is not a work. Those with faith are no more deserving of salvation than anyone else. But it is on this basis that God grants salvation. It is His privilege to do so.