The Power of Apathy and Ignorance

Keep in mind the power of apathy just because, you know, head of the evil cult running the empire doesn't mean they're doing awful things to everybody. So if you want to explain why the people aren't rising up against their evil overlords, they might a just be too busy with their own lives to get involved or may not think they can do anything. That person who lost half his finger might never even know that a million people died in China because your empire attacked them. It's also like information control to in a fantasy medieval type setting. It's much easier. Can you say your empire is evil if you live in peace and the taxes are low? Yeah.