I would say knowing that you are not free, is the surest way to know you don't live in a democracy.

Caitlin Johnstone highlights a few things -> https://consortiumnews.com/2024/05/28/caitlin-johnstone-knowing-how-unfree-you-are/

• Whether or not the drastic action needed to prevent environmental collapse should be taken. 
• Whether or not the U.S. empire should be escalating against nuclear-armed nations such as Russia and China with ever-increasing aggression. 
• Whether the wealthy should be getting richer and richer while the poor have to struggle harder and harder to survive. 
• Whether the wealthy should be allowed to use their wealth to influence political affairs in a way that gives them more and more wealth and power.
• Whether they should have their minds pummeled with empire propaganda 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year by rich and powerful people who are invested in manipulating the way they think, act, vote, shop and work.
•  Whether their police force should be getting more and more militarized, or whether the surveillance practices of the U.S. intelligence cartel should be getting more and more intrusive.
•  Whether the U.S. should have the highest incarceration rate in the world and the profoundly unjust legal system which gives rise to it.
• Whether the internet should be getting more and more consolidated and censorship-heavy as Silicon Valley megacorporations move into more and more collaborative relationships with the U.S. government.
• Whether there should be billionaires when there are people living on the streets.
• Whether their government should be encircling the planet with hundreds of military bases and working to destroy any nation which disobeys it while their own people struggle and suffer at home.