It makes them build their lives around the assumption that only activities that everyone else seems to be doing, are safe to do. You could say that in more (re

It makes them build their lives around the assumption that only activities that everyone else seems to be doing, are safe to do. You could say that in more (relatively) free societies it is also this way. But no. In China the default position is "everything is forbidden unless explicitly permitted" whereas in the US for example this is flipped to the near opposite position, "everything is permitted unless it involves doing something forbidden."