Perceptions of the average normies -- who are in self-imposed television, social media, and sportsball escapist-cognitive-dissonance prisons -- aren't a reliable or reasonable metric for how open totalitarianism is.

Normies lack defiance. Normies don't cop to recognizing tyranny because they're too afraid to confront the possibility it exists, and they're too afraid to confront themselves about what their responsibility is in the face of tyranny. They delude themselves to escape notice or they side with it and pretend or believe it's good without thinking too hard. Ever watch those "interviews" of Chinese citizens on the anniversary of Tiananmen Square? How they pretend to not know, how they're terrified of the implications, and/or how they want to be left alone? That's Western normies now.