That pattern is not in evidence here. He seems very level about the whole thing, and much different than your caricature:
“ At the same time, the stakes were never nearly as dire as those in the society he’d left. As he put it, “Unlike in the Soviet Union and today’s Russia, it appeared that no one was sent to a labor camp, prison, or psychiatric ward. Another big difference with the Soviet practices was that to have the support of a few colleagues was often enough to stem the tide.””
He explicitly says he is concerned that it is sloppy, damaging thinking, but does not claim an analogy to the Gulag.
“ At the same time, the stakes were never nearly as dire as those in the society he’d left. As he put it, “Unlike in the Soviet Union and today’s Russia, it appeared that no one was sent to a labor camp, prison, or psychiatric ward. Another big difference with the Soviet practices was that to have the support of a few colleagues was often enough to stem the tide.””
He explicitly says he is concerned that it is sloppy, damaging thinking, but does not claim an analogy to the Gulag.