This is literally my parents. They told me to stop criticizing the people in power, even going as far as saying I shouldn’t criticize the government of my former country. I don’t even have citizenship in my former country anymore, not sure how I could even get in trouble for criticizing is effecively a foreign country to me. (I’m talking about PRC btw).
My mom told me to “just focus on improving your own life and stop worrying about things like you can’t control like politics” (as in, both the politics of my former country and the politics of my current country)
Am I in the wrong here? Should I just keep quiet and not say anything so that I don’t “get in trouble”?
No. Openly communicating (constructive) criticism is essential for improvement. As is protesting if matters are severe.
You can do both. A little personal life improvement here and a little societal improvement there.
Make no mistake, you’re probably just a drop of water in an ocean. But: speaking about what matters to you, going to vote (if possible), engaging in shaping the society, just mere talking to others about stuff can already change so much. It can change minds or at least give incentives to think about. More importantly, it can connect you to other drops in the ocean, until you form a cup of water. Maybe a barrel next. And who knows, maybe one day enough to roll over the land like tsunami. Preferrably not deadly though. ;)
Keep fighting. Keep engaging. If we keep quiet and do nothing, we will let rule those, who know how to use this passivity to their advantage.
Only dead fish go with the flow.