I think people just need to respect the fact that some of us live in literal surveillance states...

No, I don't. And don't take that for a lack of sympathy - I am sympathetic - but it's not my job to make my discourse more retarded just because your country is retarded.

I'm certainly not going to stop citing our own Declaration of Independence just because Europe is even more retarded now.

You're living under tyranny. Do something about it, or at the very least protect yourself with VPNs and the like, or even by not posting if you determine the risk is too high. You have to do what's best for you, but it's not my job to respect your country's stupid "laws." In fact that shit is how we got into some of this mess.