weird things that happen to your brain in an authoritarian country

[amw]

If you have read this journal for a while, you might notice that i have been speaking a bit more actively against the Chinese government in the past year or so. This is somewhat of a conscious decision that i made after i visited the UK last year and it kinda shocked me back into awareness of how blasé i had become about living under a jackboot

Comments

Re: Boiling the frog

[amw]

I posted a reply below reflecting on the Trump/Hitler comparisons. I definitely agree that Trump has moved the goalposts on what is acceptable from an American head of state. On the other hand, i think we are fortunate that Trump doesn't appear to have the ideological drive that some other authoritarians do/did. I don't think he has the patience to succeed in completely crushing the will of the people

[sweetmeow]

I actually can see how this can happen. We have - without realizing it - normalized Trump's outrageous behavior and verbiage. He does it so often that resistance becomes futile, and it slowly has become acceptable, or at the very least, the "new normal". In other contexts, and in lesser quantities, it would not be acceptable. Plus - despite my personal hatred of him, Trump IS a charismatic figure.

When I was in school studying history, I'd always wondered how people could have allowed themselves to accept Hitler. I think I see, now. There becomes this psychological ability to normalize what should never be considered normal when there is immersion in that behavior combined with charisma.

[amw]

Yep, this.

I think one redeeming factor with Trump is that he doesn't appear to take being president very seriously. When you compare him to an ideological authoritarian like Xi (or Hitler) the differences are stark. Trump just isn't driven enough to completely bend an entire country to his will. He seems quite content to just sit there with his 43% approval rating and have lackeys blow smoke up his ass.

[meowmensteen]

I don't blame you for being annoyed. The American in me would not be able to handle that situation at all.

[amw]

The thing is... i am not annoyed. If they just keep hammering, and you keep letting it go, eventually it stops bothering you. I think that's subconsciously why i am so extra on my LJ sometimes - maybe not because i feel it so deeply at the time, but because it's a performative countermeasure to the indoctrination.

My mom was new age, so i grew up in an environment where creative visualization was a thing. As a bullied kid i was skeptical that that imagining a better world would amount to anything, but now i am older i have seen "fake it till you make it" working first hand. Given how much just living here wears you down, i think forcing out a bit of outrage (in the safe space of LJ) is a way to trick my mind back to "normal".

I dunno, not sure if i am explaining this very well.

[meowmensteen]

It does kind of make sense. I do an opposite kind of thing. When I was younger I used to rant about my spouse a lot on LJ. It let off a lot of the steam and made it easier for me to not be confrontational. Now days I barely mention things about him that frustrate me here, instead I let out my frustration by actually talking to him about it rather than here haha. You know, resolving things rather than silently brooding online. In my case that's the better option, but in your case, you do need to vent, because being confrontation in your situation only gets you in trouble.