Lesson 3.3: Mental Health and Personal Consequences

4. Self-censorship and withdrawal

Self-censorship is not a personal failing but

a rational adaptation to hostile environments.

Activists described adjusting tone, vocabulary, and appearance to avoid accusations of radicalism — a subtle but powerful form of self-regulation.

Switzerland

Professionals delivering gender training noted a cultural shift as ‘anti-woke’ rhetoric spread:

There were professionals who came to us, who wanted to be trained, to understand better, to do better. And now, there’s a bit of a turnaround. Because people are saying to themselves, this is woke stuff, it’s going too far […] But not at all! (SWIINT03 witzerland Report, p. 11)

Greece

Marachi described this as internalised violence:

All this micro-policing that we do to protect ourselves, it is essentially a form of violence we have internalised and we deprive ourselves of our own freedom. (Greece Report, p. 9)

Germany

In Germany, where public educators and researchers were targeted online, many resorted to anonymity:

I try to get as little out there as possible, regarding publications or similar. I silence myself. That’s an effect. (GERINT08, German Report, p. 13)

These testimonies show how fear gradually shifts from external repression to self-surveillance, altering how people inhabit public space. They show how fear gradually shifts from external repression to self-surveillance, altering how people inhabit public space.