What I find frustrating is discussing something relatively trivial when talking about a totalitarian state.

I am not from the West, and I do wonder if people bring up these just to be polite or to sound impartial.

It's usually to point out commonalities to get people to emote when having a conversation I find.

Yes comparing the scales of the Chinese sensorship to googles deplatforming of uncomfortable topics is not nice.

But explaining how one can lead to the other also explains to people in the west why something is bad. Especially when people would readily sleep walk into enabling technologies that would enable state sensorship at a level that would concern everyone.

But I'm not comparing Switzerland to China!

I'm just pointing out that this kid had a really naive attitude of where our rights currently stand in the West. And I think the story is the proof - the kid got canned.

The form of censorship in the west here I'd argue its financial oppression. Granted in his case he's been lucky enough that his support went the press so he might get something for his efforts, but financial oppression by bullies isn't new or unique to any culture I fear.

Tell me, is your country one where loosing your job would be considered a relatively trivial or benign punishment for mouthing off? Because in my parents' country they would have been thrown off an airplane for what this kid did.

But I didn't grow up in my parent's country. I grew up in the West. And I cherish very jealously my rights and refuse to trivialize cancel culture, blasphemy laws etc. And if we in the West had taken our rights seriously this kid wouldn't have been fired.