US does feel like the flip side of the coin of the USSR (was born there, albeit I was too young to remember any substantive details).

I've lived in both US and Russia for many years, albeit I first experienced US as a young adult.

I will agree that Soviet-style hypernormalization is near universal in the US. I felt this as a young adult, perhaps ~10 years before I actually watched HyperNormalisation. It was clear most of the polemics about "freedom of this or that" was just local bullshit, not to be taken seriously.

I would disagree about russia feeling more oppressive (although I haven't been there since 2009), but in some ways it was more free than the US, I will agree on that one.