Every authoritarian movement eventually discovers the same thing: controlling the future gets easier once you control the memory of the people. Not just what people believe now, but what they remember, what they’re allowed to discuss, and what future generations are taught to accept as unquestioned truth. History, after all, is not merely a record of events. It’s the operating system of national identity. Truth doesn’t always disappear in flames. Sometimes it vanishes behind

Instead of engaging with the specifics, the conversation pivots to “both sides.” And the more I hear it, the more I’ve come to see that this phrase isn’t always analysis. More often, it’s an exit ramp. A way to disengage.