I'm not disagreeing with you but I'm curious what specific things you feel are 'chilled'? People in western countries can still write whatever they want - anti-government, anti-capitalism, whatever else. In fact there seem to be more conspiracy theories, Obama hate, and Clinton and David Cameron hate than at any time in human history. Like the most worry I have is having private actors look into my history and ban me from their sites or become targeted by hackers and such. That kind of stuff has a chilling effect much more to me than government/NSA/GCHQ, since they seem to have bigger fish to fry and they are ruled by law / principles taught in 'boot camp'