"Well, governments that try and fail at censorship do worse than ones that succeed and ones that don't try, but that is probably because trying and failing implies a lot of internal chaos."

Nod. "...I was going to ask 'like Calado' but it seems mean to always pick on Calado."

"Shi Cubrio and Tea are permissions countries and not very nice places to live."

"Do they have that problem?"

"Not quite as intensely as Calado but certainly some."

"If Calado is bad because of permissions why is it worse than other permissions countries?"

"Well, it doesn't have a central leadership structure, just a lot of senators. Most permissions countries either have a small number of rulers - which is the stablest way to do governance - or a lot of long-standing rules and traditions and inherited competence about setting policy given disagreement among the major power brokers."

"Huh."

"Calado's system was, uh, hastily assembled in the aftermath of the collapse of the Oahk Empire. Tea or Yvalta had had their system for a while."

Nod.

"My guess would be that censorship helps a lot in cases like the violence thing and not as much in other situations, and that knowing how to do it right makes a big difference."

"Since the internet goes anywhere can you even check very well?"

"Only if you can convince other countries to cooperate. Or if you're like Tuviri and have your own internet."

"...I'm not sure I have even heard of Tuviri before."

"There are a lot of countries! Tuviri doesn't really approve of foreign influences and they keep their internet separate."

"Why?"

"Well, it means they don't have to negotiate complicated international deals if they want to censor something, and it means they can exercise some control over news and media, and they think that it would be bad if their people learned how other people live."

"Why would that be bad? Are they worse?"

"I can't really make a very informed guess. I do not think they are the worst place in the world. I don't know if they're right that their people would follow their laws less, or be upset, if they had access to the rest of the world. They might just be wrong. They might even be wrong and suspect as much but now it's habit and no one wants to risk a lot of effort on undoing it."

"Does it bother their people or can't you know because they are hiding?"

"If I had to guess I would guess it doesn't bother them that much, because people mostly get used to things. There are only a couple kinds of harm that people won't just mostly adjust to and be about as happy as before."

"What kinds?"

"A bad spring doesn't get easier when you're used to it. People acclimate a little to pollution but not that much, people in a gross environment will be permanently much less happy. Long commutes. And loneliness."

"Commutes?"

"The effect size is much, much smaller than a bad spring. But yes, commutes."