When my paternal grandfather, who left Russia at the tail end of the Revolution to gain freedom for himself and his then-future kids, went back to visit his remaining family in 1969, every single conversation of import was done via a long walk outside - and away from benches on the street or streetlights.
I fear that we are going to be reduced to the same here. There are so many laws and regulations of which we are not even aware, that every single person probably breaks the law several times a day. Now they have that much more leverage on us. That reminds me of Ayn Rand’s quote from “Atlas Shrugged”:
“Did you really think we want those laws observed?” said Dr. Ferris. “We WANT them to be broken. You’d better get it straight that it’s not a bunch of boy scouts you’re up against... We’re after power and we mean it... There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted — and you create a nation of law-breakers — and then you cash in on guilt. Now that’s the system Mr. Reardon, that’s the game, and once you understand it, you’ll be much easier to deal with.”
The bloc babushkas, school teachers, and assorted bureaucrats had a keen sense of hearing, or at least the people feared that there was always one trolling for intel. Residents readily perceived when an indiscreet neighbor would mysteriously disappear.
Makes me consider that the Soviets' motives for keeping that info away from the West was not so much to limit exposure to the generation living at that time, but to the future generations of the brainwashed West. When history was doomed to repeat, there would be no inconvenient history. The few scraps remaining could be dismissed as relics of a long-dead era. Ironic, considering that the totalitarians of today are all about accessing, collecting, and abusing electronic history footprints. When despots can craft history into a weapon, despots love history.