diff -urpa mc-4.8.31.orig/src/editor/edit.c mc-4.8.31/src/editor/edit.c
--- mc-4.8.31.orig/src/editor/edit.c	2024-01-20 20:34:38.000000000 +0100
+++ mc-4.8.31/src/editor/edit.c	2024-04-03 21:43:01.355289821 +0200
@@ -99,8 +99,8 @@ edit_options_t edit_options = {
     .backup_ext = NULL,
     .filesize_threshold = NULL,
     .stop_format_chars = NULL,
-    .visible_tabs = TRUE,
-    .visible_tws = TRUE,
+    .visible_tabs = FALSE,
+    .visible_tws = FALSE,
     .show_right_margin = FALSE,
     .simple_statusbar = FALSE,
     .check_nl_at_eof = FALSE