Is this the same oppressive regime that surveils, firewalls and filters the internet and other forms of communication that this idea depends on?

Except it doesn't depend on any particular means of communication. You can print out Bitcoin on paper and physically trade it. You can embed it in an image and trade that. You can physically scan QR codes on each others phones to transmit it. Bitcoin and other cryptos can be transferred via sat phone. The Internet and exchanges are just conveniences.

There are also numerous projects to work around Internet censorship in the crypto space. Such as the Substratum Network (https://substratum.net) and Mysterium Network (https://mysterium.network).

I see you are trying to be clever, but that comment doesn't really bring anything to the table. Sure, you can try to filter/block crypto transactions but that will be A LOT harder than blocking dissident blogs. One of the biggest selling points of many decentralized systems is to be censorship resistant.

I am not even remotely trying to be clever.

Blocking these transactions is trivial to do. Employers detect and block them constantly.

The purported censorship resistance of these coins has nothing to do with the shape of the traffic.

thats only true in theory really, because there are many ways to go around the same blocks. eg , by simply storing ur wallet node remotely. nobody said that there is something special about the traffic, just that the system is set up in a way that does makes it impossible for governments to effectively stop you from enjoying ur rights to freely transact.

All you have done is restate what you wrote.

There is empirical evidence that this traffic can and does get blocked. Furthermore, many cloud providers stop this traffic.

It's not that hard to do that now with gold, unless the amount you're talking about is truly huge.

$65,000 worth of gold is the size of an iPhone X.

And how would their people acquire this “wealth” in the first place?

Working?

And get paid in BTC?

Are you implying that because someone lives in an oppressive country that they have no money to transact? I really dont understand your question.

Oppressive regimes tend to control money flow in/out of the country. So if you, for example, have an aunt somewhere outside that wants to send you money -> you just might not be able to receive it, or would need to give some official a slice of the pie. Bitcoin obviously can help as u can just move the money without government oversight.

Crypto is only effective in that regard if you're able to opt-in. The problem is, you eventually need to interface with the fiat currencies for your "wealth" to be useful. The first step an oppressive regime would do is to just ban exchanges.

Acquiring this "wealth" of crypto would be impossible in an oppressive regime in the first place.

you dont really need to go to an exchange to get crypto. Lots of OTC sellers, miners, etc.

There were actually a few news articles about people in 3rd world countries that survived thanks to btc, though I can't find any at the moment.

Then don't use an exchange?

Lots of people do person to person transactions.