"Speak out against the Chinese Empire and you lose your head. Speak out against the King of Spain and you face the Inquisition. Speak out against Comrade Stalin and you get sent to Siberia..."
"The great thing about western liberal democracy is that it has a free marketplace of ideas. Everybody criticizes some aspect of our society. Noam Chomsky made a career of criticizing our society and became rich and famous and got a cushy professorship..."
"So our advantage is that we admit our societyโs imperfections, reward those who point them out, and so keep inching closer and closer to this ideal of perfect government..."
"Okay, back up. Suppose you went back to Stalinist Russia and you said 'You know, people just donโt respect Comrade Stalin enough. There isnโt enough Stalinism in this country! I say we need two Stalins! No, fifty Stalins!'"
"Congratulations. You have found a way to criticize the government in Stalinist Russia and totally get away with it. Who knows, you might even get that cushy professorship."
"If you 'criticize' society by telling it to keep doing exactly what itโs doing only much much more so, society recognizes you as an ally and rewards you for being a 'bold iconoclast' or 'having brave and revolutionary new ideas' or whatever..."
"Itโs only when you tell them something they actually donโt want to hear that you get in trouble."
--Scott Alexander
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