I am not sure it is a matter of being "prepared" to suffer rather than a defeatist cultural attitude about the ability to effect change. It's not hard to unders

I am not sure it is a matter of being "prepared" to suffer rather than a defeatist cultural attitude about the ability to effect change. It's not hard to understand where that attitude comes from: for the past century, any hint of dissention was rapidly repaid with a one way ticket to a gulag in one form or another. This isn't to say that e.g. there isn't genuine support for the regime; there certainly is, but there's also low inclination toward the kind of activism that changes hearts and minds, and consequently state propaganda has an outsize influence on political opinions. Meanwhile in the West, we are of the belief that if we complain loudly enough about things, they will get better. That attitude is correct a surprisingly large amount of the time! So next time you want to complain about people complaining about stuff that complaining about won't fix, remember it's (usually) a good thing that we're culturally wired to be difficult to please.