In Gulag Archipelago, Solzhenitsyn tells the story of a village somewhere in the Russian countryside in the 1930s. Some Moscow party officials, along with some NKVD agents, paid a visit to the town and order the residents to all attend a town meeting where one of the party officials read aloud one or another of Stalin’s long, boring dreary speeches.
At the end of the reading, everyone in the town jumped to their feet and started clapping. They knew they were being watched and judged so they continued clapping and clapping and clapping. No one wanted to be the first person to STOP clapping and so the clapping went on and on and on. Only the NKVD agents stood stone-faced without clapping; they were busy watching, and waiting. The wanted to see who would stop clapping first.
Finally the eldest man in the village, and one of the village leaders, stopped clapping and sat down. Instantly everyone else stopped clapping and sat down.
The next day, the village elder who had stopped clapping first was arrested by the NKVD and transported to the Gulag where he quickly died.
Dana Milbank would NEVER be in danger of being the first to stop clapping. Dana Milbank is absolutely, 100% safe.
It’s okay - we can substitute a little bit and make it relevant... MSM = NKVD. Uhm, next, old Village Elder = Munro.
There - now it’s relevant!