Symbolic dissent prosecutions widened the gap between party and society without enforcing loyalty.

Evidence

Although the party no longer enforced society’s loyalty to the party by the 1980s, it displayed little tolerance of dissent. Instead, it zealously prosecuted such degenerates as the Plastic People of the Universe, a rock band whose chief “antisocialist transgression” appears to have been its penchant for long hair and unintelligible lyrics. The result was an ever-deepening divide between the communist party and the society. — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 233

Categorization

• CANDY: The Plastic People of the Universe prosecuted for long hair and unintelligible lyrics is a light, tweetable anecdote.
• XREF: connects to: Loyal party discipline must flow from conviction, not mechanical coercion — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 219

Broader Connections

• Loyal party discipline must flow from conviction, not mechanical coercion #corroborates (0.78) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 219