Take It From a Syrian: Here’s How Informant Culture Rots Your Society

Take It From a Syrian: Here’s How Informant Culture Rots Your Society

A government building shows a defaced picture of former President Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo, Syria, on Dec. 1, 2024. Photo: Karam Almasri/NurPhoto via Getty Images Authoritarianism does not begin with prisons or torture chambers. It begins with suspicion — when loyalty is measured not by what you believe but by whom you are willing to expose. In East Germany, the Stasi turned neighbors into watchmen. In Chile under Pinochet, a whisper in a café …