It almost makes one wonder if there is no such thing as a regime that isn't "repressive", given that the one most loudly trumpeting the rule of law and righteousness engages in the exact same blatantly criminal acts as all of the other ones they like to vilify as being without the rule of law. There are precisely zero states that have the power to torture with impunity that don't use it to, well, torture with impunity. It's a decades old running gag and common TV trope in the US-and-A that you'll get raped in prison if you get locked up. Everyone truly knows that the concept of equal protection under the law is just a joke, but we keep on as if the emperor were fully clothed.

Now that we've got a real honest-to-goodness war (with associated war crimes) happening in the only region of this planet that seemed at present to have a snowball's chance in hell of actually maintaining peace and human rights, I'm beginning to wonder if large groups of humans are even capable of actually having, you know, a civilization.

It's not lookin' good. I will remain pathologically optimistic, however.