Soft Totalitarianism: Control Without Chains | Philosophy for Better Humans

We’re told we’re freer than ever. No dictators. No chains. No prison camps.

So why does it feel harder to speak honestly?

In this episode of Philosophy for Better Humans, we explore soft totalitarianism — a modern form of control that doesn’t rely on force, but on comfort, fear of exclusion, social pressure, and algorithmic influence.

Drawing from the warnings of Hannah Arendt, Aldous Huxley, Alexis de Tocqueville, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and Václav Havel, this episode reveals how freedom can quietly erode inside democratic societies — not through violence, but through conformity, distraction, and moral outsourcing ...