I don't believe he's been assassinated, no. I believe it's just that his internet access has been cut.
It's simply not their style (to assassinate him). You can think of Western oppression as being snake-like, while Chinese or Russian oppression is dragon-like. If someone speaks out against the establishment in China or Russia, the response will be brute-force - the dissident will be assassinated. If someone speaks out against the establishment in the West, the response is far more insidious, they will run smear campaigns against you, call you a rapist etc, try to control information. Not unlike Scientology. An assassination is typically the last resort because of the extra paperwork involved.
> You can think of Western oppression as being snake-like, while Chinese or Russian oppression is dragon-like. If someone speaks out against the establishment in China or Russia, the response will be brute-force - the dissident will be assassinated.
Well, I think this is bollocks. I think what you described is what the western media would like you to believe: Russia and China assassinate, whereas the USA "only" makes up bogus charges against you and encarcerate you.
I don't know much about China, but there are endless examples of Russia making up bogus charges, and endless examples of US assassinations. These two are closer than most westerners are comfortable thinking.
In America, they have to at least keep up the pre-text that you are free. Because of the statue of liberty etc. The idea is that if people believe (falsely) that they are free, they are less likely to resist. It's definitely a different style.
Also don't worry I'm not a shill for mainstream media :)
"In 1990, Elizabeth Newton did a fascinating psychology experiment: She paired participants into teams of two: one tapper and one listener. The tappers picked one of 25 well-known songs and would tap out the rhythm on a table. Their partner - the designated listener - was asked to guess the song. How do you think they did?
Not well. Of the 120 songs tapped out on the table, the listeners only guessed 3 of them correctly - a measly 2.5 percent. But get this: before the listeners gave their answer, the tappers were asked to predict how likely their partner was to get it right. Their guess? Tappers thought their partners would get the song 50 percent of the time. You know, only overconfident by a factor of 20. What made the tappers so far off?
They lost perspective because they were "cursed" with the additional knowledge of the song title.Chip and Dan Heath use the story in their book Made to Stick to introduce the term:
"The problem is that tappers have been given knowledge (the song title) that makes it impossible for them to imagine what it's like to lack that knowledge. When they're tapping, they can't imagine what it's like for the listeners to hear isolated taps rather than a song. This is the Curse of Knowledge. Once we know something, we find it hard to imagine what it was like not to know it. Our knowledge has "cursed" us. And it becomes difficult or us to share our knowledge with others, because we can't readily re-create our listeners' state of mind.""
Many of the responses given to this question are fairly weak, eg. "but what if you don't want people to see you naked?". Invasion of privacy affects someone's dignity, sure, but it's the fact that it makes one _politically neutered_ that's the actual issue and is harder to explain.
Here's one response:
"Imagine if you ever wanted to join the Occupy Wall Street movement or something like that. All of a sudden the government, who will now see you as a threat, can go through everything you've ever done and hold it against you. Remember that one time you pirated a movie? Jail time. Remember that one time you experimented with drugs? Jail time. They will dig up something from your past and use it against you. Oppression is not a theoretical idea and not only an historical problem. Having all information about yourself available essentially makes you politically neutered."
I'll be putting together a set of real-world examples to further emphasize the point.
