How is encroaching totalitarianism like a trip to Boulder?

"The gradualness of the transitions between your starting point and each station along the way are so easy, and the internal adjustment you make to each point so subtle, that you never notice that your brain is starving and hallucinating a little more each minute. You're getting stupider and stupider while your internal monitors are telling you that you're fine."

"Or maybe even getting smarter, until you find yourself walking naked through 3-foot drifts of snow, or believing that there really were WMDs in Iraq, or that Saddam really did plan 9/11, or that outing CIA spies during a time of war is acceptable, or that massive warrantless wiretapping of American citizens is a great idea, or that constant and escalating Presidential lying is A-OK…for reasons that seem perfectly valid at the moment."

A simple parable from Driftglass