redrumloa said:
Hearing about such things is less to do with what the Chinese government represses than with what the US media chooses to report.
The other matter is on oppression and repression. All oppression is relative and cultural.
Take, for example, a child being raised in a family. The child has to comply with the family rules. Some families are more repressive than other families but they all tend to justify this as being "for the good". Some super churchy families may be super repressive and yet many of the children raised in such families will grow up feeling like that repression is not only normal but necessary and any of the members of the group such as children who wish to leave are viewed as deviant.
Generally if you are the type to go along to get along and don't have a problem with that then you will not feel repressed. If you conform because you believe it is everyone's duty to do so to keep society together then an individualist looks like a threat. These Xtians, for example, who feel that gay marriage will destroy society are the kind of herd animal that seeks comfort in conforming to strict rules and feel threatened by other people who have nothing to do with them acting differently.
Some repression is more obvious than other forms and if they are more noticeable then they are likely to be referred to as "oppressive". When the repression comes from an identifiable source but is of a different nature to the local repressive regime (regime not used in the pejorative here) then it is oppressive but if the repression rises out of the social group itself then it is invisible to everyone except those who disagree. Propaganda can mask the source and given time transfer the oppression to the psyche of the oppressed until it pervades the society and becomes a self enforcing voluntary repression like Sharia or Mosaic law.
If you support the war and the president and the government in general then you can rally just about anywhere you want. If you are against the same things (and therefore against the elites in whose interests these things are done) then you will be relegated to special "free speech zones" out of view and organizers of such events will be vilified and persecuted. The vast majority of apolitical society will not notice this nor see it as repressive. In fact, many are happy to join in with yelling "get a job" or "liberal" without any comprehension of the issues being raised because they are still part of the self repressive society. The majority of the people will always go along with what they think the majority of the people want (and that is the art of public relations - making a special interest position appear to be majority).
