to clarify: life under authoritarians is often boring and normal for many people until it all of a sudden isn’t, and of course it’s that uncertainty that causes the corrosion.
Living under authoritarian regimes is both relatively boring and normal AND incredibly corrosive to the human soul. These things can absolutely co-exist.
This is why everyone needs to resist authoritarians, even people who privately assume they’ll be just fine.
A lot of Americans do know what it's like to live under an authoritarian regime. My parents do. Many immigrants ended up in the US because they were fleeing authoritarianism (sometimes US backed). Offhand Haitians, Dominicans, Salvadorans, Nicaraguans, Koreans all know.
The wildest thing about this is that i know some elder immigrants who fled authoritarianism who were brainwashed into "communism = bad" that they impulsively vote republican
And continue to do so in defiance of everything they see because that training is so deep
