Professor Mattias Desmet, author of The Psychology of Totalitarianism, has asked the question as to whether the level of censorship in the West is greater than that which was found in the former Soviet Union, the USSR. At first glance the question seems absurd, or just rhetoric. There are not camps for dissents yet, or is there? The treatment of the January 6 protesters, being slammed into prison, still without trials, and torture, is an example. That occurred in the USSR too, but it is happening in the US.
There were no wide-spread lockdowns of society to deal with the flu in the USSR either. And, it was easier to listen to Western radio broadcasts in the USSR, than it is today to listen, or view Russian material. While the West, and particularly the US is not yet at USSR levels of censorship, it is on the same road to totalitarianism.