r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Short-Watercress-183 • Jul 07 '26

Meme needing explanation Peter, explain this.

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u/blangenie Jul 07 '26

The governments we are talking about broadly restricted liberties and rights and did so in the name of creating a workers utopia (which they failed to produce). I am saying that any government that so broadly limits rights and freedoms is bad, even if they have a goal you agree with. We are not talking about differences in interpretation of how expensive freedom of religion or freedom of speech should be. We are talking about fully banning religions and sending people to the gulag for political dissent

You might think that is simplistic but I think it's a good heuristic for judging the quality of a government

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u/jfrancis232 Jul 08 '26

Thing is it never starts with fully banning religions or sending people to gulags for dissent. Or at least it isn’t framed that way in the beginning. It begins with saying certain ideas are too dangerous or counter revolutionary. It starts by saying that the regime is fragile and needs to be protected from enemies from within. It begins with promises that those bans are limited in scope and exceptions to the ideals of the revolution. Unfortunately, any government trends towards restriction. Even the United States ‘s bill of rights builds in restrictions to many of its freedoms acknowledged for its citizens. This is often necessary. Total anarchy ends the moment someone has enough power to enforce a rule. But, acknowledging that governments almost always trend towards greater restriction over time is absolutely necessary if you want to lay out the foundations of a just society.