Memes

That’s due in part to lengthy prison sentences and the war on drugs.

Yeah... it doesn't get any more authoritarian than that.

I expect those things will improve going forward and it’s really not hard to avoid committing crimes.

Doesn't look like it from where I'm standing. I'd say the US is pretty much on a one-way street to more authoritarianism - not less. Or, to put it more accurately, US authoritarianism will start more and more affecting certain groups and classes that have thought themselves free from it up until now - it's like they say... fascism is just colonialism coming home to roost.

And like it or not, we have pretty unrestricted access to just about anything.

US authoritarianism works very differently than the model China is chasing... but that doesn't make it any less authoritarian. China simply doesn't have the ability to "drown out" narratives that pose a threat to the status quo in the way that the US media machine does. No other country except the US can do that - though China is making strides in that department. Once they do, it doesn't matter if a small minority of people knows the truth - a large (and vocal) part of the population has been immunized against it. That's the core characteristic of the US propaganda model.