I'm not sure they were. They kicked off when food prices spiked, and proximate causes were corruption and unemployment.
Officially endorsed foreign protests against government we don't particularly like are always described as being about freedom in the west for reasons that aren't always good.
>The idea that citizens in Tunisia, Egypt, or Syria are "intellectually incapable of understanding" the idea of freedom of speech is insulting.
Yes, absolutely it is.
And for corruption and unemployment, they are much worse now than before. Then more than half the country are under poverty line, most of middle class became lower class in a couple of years.
There were no particular reason why the uprising happened, of course some people joined because of that. But this wasn't my reason (or majority of people I know).
It might be that the conditions are just as ripe now as they were under Arab spring.