I no longer think that something like Ortega is doing can’t happen in the United States. In my state of Washington, the legislature is on the verge of approving a law that would allow government to monitor all communications - public and private - in order to detect signs of “radicalization” or “extremism,” which includes the expression of traditional Christian views on marriage, gender, sexuality, and abortion, and which will allow intervention by law enforcement and/or mental health professionals when someone expresses those beliefs, even when no criminal act is intended. Just the thought will be a crime.
It’s so bad that the people of WA State are so obtuse politically. It will in time cost them their freedom.