Trotsky complained about the same thing when he was improperly arrested in Norway under a law they made up a few days later.
> Trotsky described this period as an incredibly cynical persecution by a "socialist" government, noting that his jailers were, ironically, fascists under the control of the Norwegian ministry.
> … the police officers guarding him were members of the Norwegian Nazi party, Nasjonal Samling
As I recall, Trotsky likened his position to Ibsens 1882 play An Enemy of The People, a story about a Doctor who is lauded for exposing contamination at a local spa only to have the press and then people turn against him when local power brokers highlight the risk to their finances. The press turns on him, then the people.
In modern terms we call that reaction DARVO, it indicates specific psychological modalities. Norway is rotten with it.
Trotsky found resonance between his treatment and the solitude and loneliness of that truth telling Doctor beset by a hostile society far more concerned with protecting internal corruption than truth.
Ibsen himself was chased out of the country, writing this play in response, creating a world-famous rebuke of local corruption carried out by self righteous liars warping socialist language for self-interest, and the quiet victim blaming herd that would support those bad actors (or be the next to be excommunicated).
Cancellation by a Russian friendly press, in modern parlance.
Saying one thing, doing another. Saying one thing while doing another. Unprincipled, yes, ‘incredibly cynical’, yes… Logical though. It’s only not logical if you believe their words. “Arbeit macht frei” is not for logic, it is for duping, to mock, a one-sided joke.
Socialists, Nazis, their lamer ideological cousins, and anti-semites all have that mocking quality about their illogic. That’s because they’re saying one thing, but doing another. The smirks let you know they know.
