See, I think everything you’ve said there actually says yes. Without free speech, there’s only one opinion, and that’s the opinion of who’s in power. You say otherwise, you disappear, so, people stop saying otherwise.
You might have thoughts, but you aren’t saying them, and since nobody else is, there can be no us vs them because nobody knows who’s on what team.
I want to clarify that I don’t think that’s a good thing. Division is not a weakness of democracy, it’s a strength.