Here's the test: Can our leaders take a joke? Can they handle criticism without reaching for handcuffs? Can they distinguish between dissent and disinformation? Because if they can't, we haven't replaced one authoritarian regime with democracy. We've just swapped the faces. And that's not funny at all.
Societies that silence dissent eventually silence innovation, justice, and even hope. The cemetery of nations is filled not with those who spoke too much, but with those who spoke too little.
