I really don’t feel like even that is as different as we think it is. Not because I don’t think China is breathing down the necks of its citizenry – I absolutely do – but because I think America* is doing it just as much. We just don’t realize it because of the immense lengths local media goes through to make it look like it’s not happening. Exonerative tense, copaganda, et cetera. Shit, it hasn’t been much more than a decade since the Snowden leaks happened, and yet as far as I know we have no good reason to believe any of that has stopped at all.

It’s easy not to think so if you’ve not personally experienced it. But it’s important to remember that if you’re not privileged, there are a lot of reasons to feel very oppressed in this country.

^{* Mentioning America here because it’s what I have personal experience with, not because I’m assuming that’s where you’re from.}