I'm just spitballing here, but I wonder if some of it is logistics illiteracy, which also plays into keeping people living in the imperial core infantilized in capability to change anything. Cause like, in all the narratives about this country is dictator, that country is dictator, you know what I never hear? How exactly they do it. What the logistics are supposed to be of carrying out these dictatorships and how exactly they function and manage to stay functioning over time, being simultaneously so in control and so terrible to their people. I'm not saying terrible governance isn't possible (hell, I live in the US...), but I never see these people delving into those things with X country that the empire vilifies. Probably because if they did, they'd find out the process is not at all what they thought. I remember when I first learned some things about the voting process of Cuba; was one of the first times I was ever exposed to actual logistical info on the processes they do and it wasn't even in that much depth, but was still way more than I'd ever been exposed to with Cuba before.