I think your perceptions may be compromised by the 'boiled frog' effect, where the increasing authoritarianism in Germany and throughout the EU has escaped your

I think your perceptions may be compromised by the 'boiled frog' effect, where the increasing authoritarianism in Germany and throughout the EU has escaped your notice because it has occurred in small increments. For instance, any discussion of the migrant crime rate, even by victims, is treated as hate speech, and even prosecuted, making people afraid to talk. At any rate, again taking Germany as an example, the hate-speech laws of The Weimar Republic were vigorously prosecuted. Even so, they were ineffective in preventing the succeeding regime from taking power, and were simply co-opted by that vile regime to suppress dissent.