I saw someone making jokes about Charlie Kirk's death while using their real name on social media, and asked them if they were worried about repercussions to their actions. Mostly because of the type of job they have.

Yes.

(Source: it's me, I'm the one self-censoring. And that's despite being a citizen by birth and a white cis-het male, BTW.)

Talking politics somehow hits different when it's completely real 😭

Also there are so many layers - there's reality, what you know of reality (e.g. am I personally an economics expert?), the perception of reality, plus that of other people, and whether you feel in any given moment like being trolled by edgelords on the internet for daring to speak your truth (Lemmy can be very supportive, so long as you agree 100% with the prevailing hivemind viewpoint present in any given community).

Also there's a utility aspect: what good does talking do, these days? Here I am not arguing that in the reality dimension but rather the perception one, i.e. people lose hope.

And overall, people get overwhelmed by it all, because it is just so much. Case in point: 🌽.

I usually censor my beliefs in public, at least in private interactions I can have some idea of if my interlocutors are trustworthy. in public that goes out the window and you have to worry about potential retaliation. where I am for example, speaking publicly in city meetings requires disclosing where you live, in addition to your full name.

I’ve been self censoring since Facebook decided to allow the general population on their platform instead of just college students. Before that, it was just a fun way to connect with friends. Once they opened to everyone, I realized all that info was out there forever for anyone to see, parents, potential employers, love interests, the government, etc.