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.
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.*
I've talked to a lot of old East Germans who talked about how carefree their youth was, and then they'd mention offhandedly their acquaintance who got shot trying to cross the border, or the time someone disappeared for a few weeks, or the time the Stasi asked them about an album they owned
