Complicity

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"The Polish writer Jacek Trznadel has described what it felt like, in Stalinist Poland, to be a loud advocate for the regime and to doubt it at the same time.

"'I was shouting from a tribune at some university meeting in Wrocław, and simultaneously felt panicked at the thought of myself shouting. I told myself I was trying to convince [the crowd] by shouting, but in reality I was trying to convince myself.'

"For some people, loud advocacy of Trump helps to cover up the deep doubt and even shame they feel about their support for Trump. It’s not enough to express tepid approval of a President who is corrupting the White House and destroying America’s alliances and inflicting economic catastrophe on the country: You have to shout if you want to convince yourself as well as others. You have to exaggerate your feelings if you are to make them believable."

—Anne Applebaum, The Atlantic, July 16, 2020