Confusing truth with perception

I was trying to remember a quote which Hitchens had referenced in his memoir. Paraphrased this quote is, "confusing culture with politics is the fist step toward totalitarianism." I still can not remember who he was quoting but I did a quick Google search to find the source and was overwhelmed with people using this quote unattributed. I mean page after page after page of chat forums and comments sections where armchair philosophers were attempting to gracefully pass this smart phrase as their own casual language. How important is perception?