I lived in Hungary for several years under the Orbán dictatorship.
The funny thing was, people could and did say whatever came into their heads, protests were held in front of the parliament, there was a gay cruise bar down the road and Orbán held elections.
And yet, the country was a dictatorship.
Whereas in the UK, people tend to be distinctly guarded and if they do say the wrong thing very publicly, they get locked up.
And yet, it's a free country.
Once you understand that words can mean whatever we want them to mean, it begins to make sense.