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It's not enough to merely criticize someone. The fear is that you are fired and your career is destroyed, which is very bad for you and your family. When expres
by seibelj 6y ago
It's not enough to merely criticize someone. The fear is that you are fired and your career is destroyed, which is very bad for you and your family. When expressing even a minor deviation from the party line can result in life-destroying consequences, all dissent and discussion is stifled out of fear. This is the chilling effect.
- not2b 6y agoYes, if it were true that "expressing even a minor deviation from the party line can result in life-destroying consequences", that would be bad. But it really isn't. You can get fired from a company by disagreeing with its party line on some issue, but that doesn't destroy your life.
- Miner49er 6y agoThere has never been a time in history when this wasn't the case for certain views. PG touches on this for much of this article. The difference now is that fairly orthodox views are the ones people are facing consequences for.