The Inner Monologue

Let’s play a game. You’re reading a thriller novel, or maybe watching a crime drama, and the protagonist does something suspicious—uses a burner phone, pays in cash, covers their tracks. And you think: Huh. I wonder how that actually works in real life.

So you open a new tab, fingers hovering over the keyboard, and then—freeze.

Wait.

If I search this, will I end up on a list?

Congratulations! You’ve just diagnosed your country’s authoritarianism.

It’s not that you’re a criminal. You’re just curious. Maybe you want to know how drug cartels launder money because you’re writing a novel. Maybe you’re fascinated by flat-earth logic because, honestly, how does anyone believe that? Or maybe you’ve seen one too many disappearances, one too many “anti-state” arrests, and you’d rather not find out firsthand how the surveillance machine works.

But here’s the thing: A healthy society doesn’t make you afraid of knowledge.

If your heart rate spikes when a cop car lingers behind you too long…
If you bite your tongue instead of fact-checking the state news…
If you’ve ever thought, I’d love to know more about [insert totally normal thing], but I don’t want my door kicked in at 3 AM…

Then the problem isn’t you. It’s where you live.

In a free country, you could Google “how to make a bomb” for your shitty action screenplay and the worst you’d get is an FBI agent laughing at your search history. In a police state, you hesitate before looking up why people protest.

So go ahead. Search for whatever you want. Read. Learn. Be suspiciously curious.

And if that feels dangerous? Well. Now you know who the real criminals are.