> Do you think it’s possible that the US government has enough control over public opinion/attention that they simply don’t need to explicitly censor in most ca

> Do you think it’s possible that the US government has enough control over public opinion/attention that they simply don’t need to explicitly censor in most cases? No, not at all, and they absolutely do not. > Who remembers PRISM? Did the government censor it? Or did we just conveniently forget? I do, but sure, many don't. But that's mostly evidence that the market for grievances against the government is a competitive one, in the US (and the west in general) - you'll always be able to cherry pick some single issue (or several) that are serious, yet fall below the radar of the general populace. In the west, we can curse our leader's names all day long, publicly with a megaphone. In the east, you can't mention Winnie the Pooh.