Yet you, like most of us, probably grew up in a democratic society (?) with a relatively high degree of freedom.

As they say: democracy may not exist, but we'll miss it when it's gone.

Not really. I grew up in a socialist (communist?) society. A form of democracy closer to ideal than whatever US is doing for the last 2 centuries or more arrived in my teen years. My personal freedoms were mostly unaffected. Most treasured freedom I acquired was the freedom to gtfo which I'm happily using right now.