I don't feel repressed in any way and I have the freedom of speech, by law, that repressed people do not. Comparing those two is an insult to those that lived in the Soviet era.
Did you seriously just link to an interview in very popular, US-hosted website with a US-based (presumably tenured) professor at one of the best universities in the world (did I mention US based?) in which he lays out in great detail his public academic research on how he considers the US an oligarchy -- as evidence of repression and harassment of those advocating for fundamental change?
Do you understand the words repression and harassment? Do you understand that if he had ventured into such research (much less published it, much much less been interviewed about it in a publication), he (and his wife) would at best have lost their jobs. Probably reassigned a new flat of the sort described in the article, in a remote area (docile academics often enjoyed access to privileged accommodation). Worst case, re-education in a Gulag.
The fact that the US isn't by a long shot perfect doesn't make it Soviet Russia.
Excuse me. It seems like you are the one assuming "Not as bad as the Soviet Union" is good enough. My family is from an FSU country, and they would not settle for that.