"But in Russia they throw dissidents in jail!"

Have you seen the famously funny clip from Parks and Recreation, that pokes fun at authoritarian countries' penchant for throwing people in jail willy nilly?

The video is, of course, spot-on — this sort of thing does happen.  What the humor hides, however, is the flip side of the coin — and that is almost never spoken of (we'll get there).

The issue was brought to my mind earlier today, when an interlocutor noted the following:

The difference of course being that when people where you live disagree with the government, they get invited to a TV show. In Russia, those who disagree get arrested.

This sincerely-held view is, sadly, just not so.

 To analyze it, let's first steelman it, by stipulating that indeed, often dissidents are jailed in Russia (and Cuba, and Boraqua...).  We'll also make the minor note that, although TV is decreasingly relevant with every day that passes by, we understand the symbolism behind being invited on TV to talk about a subject.

OK.  With the intro out of the way, let's begin in our tradition of saying the quiet part out loud.

People with views that disagree with the government's generally don't get invited on TV anywhere, except for two specific purposes:

1. As punching bags, representing a view the government / people in power hate and want to suppress.
2. When people in power want to begin promoting your view more into the mainstream — moving the Overton window to encompass your view.

Both are rare occasions.  Only in the second scenario do you stand a chance of actually persuading anyone... and even then, the opportunity didn't present itself because of the persuasive power of your view.

Now, let's move on to the nature of power, punishment and the stability of a ideological hegemony.

Yes, countries other than Russia generally don't put dissidents in jail, but they fuck with dissidents (criminal/law-abiding alike) in many more other ways.  In the GAE¹ sphere of nations, we routinely see:

• False criminal charges.
• Interdiction of property.
• Revocation of licenses.
• Character assassination.
• Kidnapping of children by child protective services.
• Social media censorship.
• Sometimes even assassination.  For extra deniability, instead of using an operative, they just rile up people against you, with the hopes that one in the riled-up crowd will do the job of offing you.

All of these retaliatory actions and more, perpetrated by official and unofficial parts of the Cathedral in unison, without any formal coordination — everybody already knows what instrument they play in this synchronous symphony.

This is highly sophisticated ideological domination, and all the countries part of the GAE¹ have refined it to its highest form.  Russian jail is merely an immature form of oppression compared to what GAE does.

Receipts?  All you need is look at what they did during the COVID hysteria to dissidents, and look at what they are doing to innocent Russians worldwide right now.

You and I laugh — funny, haha — at the video from Parks and Rec, obviously produced by GAE media, to caricaturize non-GAE countries in a disparaging way.  And, you know, the video is legitimately funny, which makes it excellent propaganda!  Who wants to live in a country where you go to jail for undercooking chicken?  Hahahaha!

But did you and I ever ask, where is the counterpart caricature video — of similar production value and persuasive power — making fun of GAE's way of imposing its ideological hegemony?

That should give you an indication of how complete GAE's hegemony machine is.

¹ Global American Empire