life under authoritarian regimes is like war: most Americans don’t know that it’s often really normal and boring, up until the rarer, horrible moments when it isn’t
Pretty much. What it mostly boils down to is that most Americans really don’t have the faintest idea what living under modern authoritarian regimes actually looks like, and how it’s often at the same time way more boring and way more scary than they’d imagined.
The damage this causes across generations (even if the regime is short lived!) is so hard to grasp if you haven’t lived with it. It touches every aspect of life. It makes trust impossible, and without some level of trust and a belief in the possibility of justice, *nothing in society works.*
china is the lowest trust, most every man for himself fuck you got mine place i have ever experienced. if americans think it's like that now oh boy you have no idea how much worse it can get once society itself is destroyed
it's a completely rational response to generations of nightmare and it fucking sucks to live in a place where everyone has knives out for everyone else at all times
Given the experience of social climbers right here on this Web Site I’m starting to think that some investigative agency would be among the least of our concerns once folks try to suss out Ways To Stay On Top out of greed, desperation, or outright maliciousness
It’s less the Ministry of Jackbooted Thuggery you have to fear the most when you instead have a vengeful neighbor or coworker or acquaintance who would *eagerly* sell you out to the Ministry of Jackbooted Thuggery if it makes them feel good
I think that's a significant aspect of authoritarianism. If it's us against them, then there is a society and the gov't doesn't control it; authoritarianism thus gets people to turn on one another for its benefit, leaving no competing power structure, no one to trust, and no society at all.
The fact that their work has likely made their country unstable and unsurvivable under stress doesn't matter, because as long as the people in charge get what they want nothing else matters. They know where the bus is going and don't care as long as they're the ones driving.
This website is also yet more proof that absolutely no social gathering is so small that it won’t attract people desperate to strategize their way to what they perceive as “the top” of the popularity heap
I so despise that indeed
I absolutely love everything games and gaming, but cynically playing games with people is what is bringing us to a global state of disaster
one of those things I just think about is like, how it was something I think on the order of 2.5% of East Germany's population being informants for the Stasi which is just equivalent to one in forty people.
It’s very internalized. My dad, my partner and I were there in 2015. We were queueing for tickets for a high speed train when they opened a new ticket line. My dad sensed it open (had his back turned), booked it, and hurdled a row of suitcases to get to the front.
Dismayed to find myself thinking like my father did. He & family arrived in Canada 1942 after fleeing Germany to Indonesia/ Singapore in 1938. He echoed those who say "when people show & say who they are and their intensions, believe them, and prevent them".
(A kind gentle man pushed to think THAT)
Thank you. I taught in post-dictatorship Albania for 2 years. The damage to the bonds of family and society over a half century of disinformation & persecution (including outlawing any religious speech or artifacts) was severe. When I teach information literacy, it’s with this as context.
In my country of origin, the latest dictatorship ended 2 years before I was born. The damage it did is still visible, 50 years on. Hell, even some of the fascist collaborators are still alive, kicking, and holding office.
