When India freed itself from British rule, there were two fronts in that fight. On one hand, you had Gandhi, peacefully pressing for the freedom of his people. He was popular in the news, and focused primarily on his own people, rather than combating the enemy. Despite the mythology around him, he accomplished very little, and never could have won a battle for independence. What is less remembered about India's independence is that it was violently won. Terrorists like Singh killed British officials and destroyed British property. Importantly, rebels didn't focus on fighting the military; they were sure to include the elite and economic interests in their attacks. Small groups of decentralized resistance kept popping up, almost spontaneously becoming a threat to the foreign ruling class, in such a way that could not be predicted. It was "bad optics". The British-dominated media smeared these folks hard. Since the British couldn't destroy them by taking down any one group, or focusing on any one area, they had to clamp down on Indian rights everywhere. There were plenty of people who blamed the terrorists for the increasing brutality of the British empire. Terrible optics. However, the Indian fighters didn't comply just because the news smeared them. They didn't stop fighting because cowards blamed them. They didn't wait for the Indian arms of the military - who reported to the British - to come free them from the British. They kept fighting. More British kept dying. The British rulers in India had a reason to be scared. Those rulers clamped down harder on Indians... but that turned more Indians against them, and it became even more difficult to rule. Resistance was coming from every direction, and British economic and political elites never knew where they would be safe. Indians suffered for years, but the British eventually realized that it wasn't worth the risk of being in India, and tyranny didn't mitigate that risk. Of course, the British were worried about their own optics. They didn't want to be the empire who fell to a bunch of terrorist subjects, who would now be called "freedom fighters" in the history books. Not only was it embarrassing, but it might give their other colonies ideas. It was America all over again. So they starting talking with Gandhi. He was the face of peaceful protest and talks, rather than the face of killing British in the streets. Their media first popularized him as an annoyance, but then held him up as a righteous leader of people who loved India, rather than a soothsayer for cowards. It was a nice story, and when it looked like the British were giving into Gandhi, everyone celebrated. The British even came out of the situation looking kind of good - they seemed like the massive empire that really listened to a holy man about human rights, and then promoted freedom. Do you think that massive empire, who killed many Indians in that fight, really cared about one Indian guy going on hunger strikes? He was propped up as a marketable alternative, in case they needed one. But, regardless of how the story was portrayed in the end, India was still free. Britain had most of the media power, controlled the optics, made their enemies look bad, made themselves look as tolerable as they possibly could, and distracted the world from what was really happening... but in the end, India was still free. The dictatorial governors in America, the handful of financiers that buy our major elections, the tech giants that manipulate the public conversation, the agents that follow orders which violate the constitution, the media moguls in their propaganda offices... I sometimes wonder what would happen if they were scared of violating American's rights. Anyone who could make them scared would certainly be accused of bad optics. As is often pointed out - the media would turn against them, and the elites would use it as an excuse to tyrannize us faster than they already are. But I wonder what would happen if the tyrannous were afraid to walk the streets. I hope it doesn't come to that. I hope a good leader steps forth, with a plan to peacefully protest tyranny. I hope that he rallies the people who love America to speak in one voice - we deserve freedom. And maybe our ruling class will realize they care about human rights, and sit down to talk with him.