Well, the USSR is currently criminalising a whole class of people based on what they chose to do with their genitalia in private. That sounds pretty oppressive to me.
> is currently criminalising a whole class of people based on what they chose to do with their genitalia in private.
I do not think you know what you are talking about.
State homophobia in Russia is becoming a thing really fast these days.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6173274
It is probably a bad law, but it certainly not criminalizing people for what they are doing with their genitalia in private. He was probably thinking about Saudi Arabia or Iran, but there is strangely little outrage against them.
In Russia, there is a big crackdown on everything LGBT-related, by the government and the church, and its getting worse every day.
A bit more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Russia
On the whole, it seems that the US is somewhat less oppressive than Russia, but a lot more than most European countries. Particularly disgusting is that many European countries haven't condemned US behaviour regarding Snowden, and even seem willing to act as US vassals.