Originally Posted by
PosPosPos
Going to play a fortuneteller for today:
This time nobody gets hurt, they will say "it's not a problem, nobody even got hurt".
Next time, people get hurt, but no deaths, or death count within a small, controlled number, they will say "it's not a problem, nobody died, or nobody important did".
And after that, lots of people get caught in a fatal incident with lots of deaths, they will say "it's not a problem, only undesirables died".
Finally, people will be outright hauled off to prison, disappear, or die from mysterious causes, all in plain sight, they will say "it's not a problem, only our enemies died accidentally, or they broke the law so they deserved what was coming to them".
In between each calculated step of escalation there will be a period of stabilization where nothing really big happens, and it's like a return to daily life. At least, comparatively.
People will just adapt, or rather, be numb to gradual worsening state, or maybe they will keep telling themselves they will stand up and do something When The Next Big Thing Happens. And When The Next Big Thing Happens, they just procrastinate and tell themselves it's not big enough. Yeah, because it's never big enough to do anything substantial about. So used to tolerating, that when things sufficiently go south, the only thing people know how to do, is to continue to tolerate.