Democracy is def a good way to mask authoritarianism. We recently embraced our first liberal democracy gov't. Paradoxically, beneath the surface, it also marks significant censorship, including the banning of books and movies, the suppression of dissenting voices, and extensive media surveillance compared to the last 10 years. This contradiction is often masked by the government's focus on countering extreme far-right movements, which leads to many quietly accepting a growing sense of oppression.