After several east european satellites of the soviet union fell in quick session, the new york times was full of stories about people who could finally speak the truth. So they sent one of their reporters to chekosovakia to see how the communists were faring and what they thought about the changes that were taking place. In his first article he sent from prague, said, while i went looking for communists, and i couldn't find a communist anywhere. And people who had made a career by rising in the communist party, running communist organizations, now all saying that they were not really communists at any point. They were simply playing along in order to feed their children,
We all self-censor at times. We keep quiet at dinner with our in-laws, or nod passively in a work meeting. But what happens when we take this deception a step further, and pretend we believe the opposite of what we really feel? In this favorite episode from 2020, economist and political scientist Timur Kuran explains how our personal, professional and political lives are shaped by the fear of what other people think.
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