Consider these two beliefs:

1. Tyranny is _binary_. A government is tyrannical, or it is not.

2. Tyranny is _total_. A tyrannical government oppresses all of its citizens, or none.

If you hold both of these beliefs, and you are not personally being oppressed by your government, then you reason that your government is not tyrannical by definition.

If you hold both of these beliefs, and you are not oppressed, but somebody else claims to be oppressed by your government, you must either change those two axiomatic beliefs, or you must reason that the other person's claim is false.

Now consider that while listening to another person claiming that they are being oppressed, you are also exposed to nearly total news propaganda explaining that this other person is "doing citizenship wrong."

They're kneeling disrespectfully. Or behaving threateningly.

Or they are loaded up with agitators from out-of-town. Or being unreasonable.

That makes it very easy to decide that the problem is the other person's claims.

Now what is the real case?

The real case is that tyranny is neither binary nor total. A country can come for your guns yet still be a real democracy (it's true!) A government can oppress some of its citizens, while treating others with kid gloves (shocker!)

But in order to understand someone who is being oppressed, you have to overcome those two unstated axiomatic beliefs about tyranny.

And you must overcome near-total propaganda reinforcing them.

I do not make excuses for those who are complicit, but I do empathize with them.