Elements of the claim that my present situation is equivalent to the gulags in another country a century ago:
- But/for causation of religious and political opinions, even privately held. Proximate causation of criticizing corruption of those in power.
- Physical correlative of difficulty of day-to-day life.
- Equivalence of formal state action and the reasonably foreseeable effects of the acts of state actors.
- Pragmatic equivalence of having no means of changing the situation other than seeking political favor, i.e., one can't just 'get a job,' one has to have sufficient connections.
- Academic and professional credentials held to be useless (occasionally, explicit statements to that effect).
- General knowledge in the society that such situations affect some percentage of the population, and explicit or de facto acceptance of the practice.