With sadness we have to recognize the gulf between Western and authoritarian societies is getting smaller every day. We no longer live in the golden age of free enquiry. Most often the West now stands for rigid ideology. When free thought rises again it may well be elsewhere...
Hyperbole seems to be an emergent property of profit/attention-seeking. The speed in which for-profit media has warped culture is truly astonishing. Free speech at risk of being a casualty only 10~ years after mass smartphone adoption.