Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World

by Anne Applebaum

After he left the country, Mawarire told me, he was “consumed by these negative comments. Something in me wanted to prove them wrong. Something in me wanted to say, ‘Listen, I’m not a coward.’ And secondly, I was genuine about this.” He went back to Zimbabwe again and was immediately arrested and strip-searched at the airport. Police took him to a maximum-security prison, where he was beaten again, tortured again, and kept in solitary confinement again. Eventually he was released, and he tried to renew his campaign. He worked to organize people; he set up another general strike, all the while suffering repeated attacks on his integrity, his finances, his intentions. Gradually, it became clear to him that his efforts were in vain. Instead of changing the system, #ThisFlag had alerted the regime to the growing level of discontent, which was adjusting its propaganda accordingly, in 2017 replacing Mugabe with Mnangagwa.

Evan Mawarire. The point here is that the good guys do not always win even they’re relentless. Evil can win and does in some cases.