To some extent… But in the USA until recently people never had reason to fear speaking out against their government.

Which people? The FBI killed Black Panther organizer Fred Hampton in his bed, back in the 60s.

The Red Scare was a decade before that.

And the back in the 1930s, The Bonus Army, a movement of World War 1 veterans demanding payment for their service from the government, was violently crushed by the united States military.