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On most metrics, it feels like this is true. The most obvious ones:
Movement: borders are more controlled than they were 30 or 50 years ago. Moving around the world leaves much more of a trail.
Money: cash is harder to use than it was even 20 years ago. Digital payments are highly surveilled.
Speech: this may be one metric where we've gained a little (and lost a lot). In my childhood, it was difficult to speak to a stranger halfway across the world. The pool of people I had access to was much smaller than it is now. Of course, our speech is surveilled and in many states these days, highly policed. Yet, maybe on this one there is some gain.
But then I see your parenthetical (in normieland), and I don't think I can say with a straight face that the normies have broader freedom of speech than they did in the past.
So, whether "we" (the normie we) were aware of it or not, we have traded away most of what matters. How to win it back? Is it even re-attainable?
My gut says we've already moved past this and all these trades have largely happened already (in normieland.) What do other stackers think?