> what is missing now

Unfortunately what is missing (in the large part of the population) is the perception of Dignity, and the unawareness of the consciousness of their action (people are accepting and feeding the machine).

It is not just the awareness of the historic context that is missing: it is the awareness that what was built is bad, and that that they are partially to blame in every act of acceptance and omission in stating the "red lines".

There is also courage. You know if you are caught angle-grinding a Flock pole, your life ends there.

No, it's incentive. Always has been. Always will be.

Awareness may (or may not) help with incentive, but by itself it does jack all, as any nerds that have been actively showing their relatives how they are tracked will tell you.

Snowden's revelations did diddlely jack for the common person, nor wikileak's. Knowing smoking is bad never prevented smokers to smoke, knowing exercice is good is not enough to make somebody do it.

You need more: social pressure, conformism, dopamine, lower friction, etc.

Safety belt didn't become common because the average person were aware of the benefits. People screamed about it, complained, refused to use them.

It's the push from insurances to get them into law that turned into car manufacturer making it a feature, cops giving away fines, and social contracts pressuring you into using them that made them ubiquitous.

The myth that awareness is what is missing is one of the reasons so many topic never move because it's talking on the internet about it is easier than doing something about it. So people choose awareness as the virtue signaling easy way out of their guilt.