"Permitting nonviolent protest improves the image of the state. Whether they mean to or not, nonviolent dissidents play the role of a loyal opposition in a performance that dramatizes dissent and creates the illusion that democratic government is not elitist or authoritarian. Pacifists paint the state as benign by giving authority the chance to tolerate a criticism that does not actually threaten its continued operation."
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Peter Gelderloos, How Nonviolence Protects the State
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nonviolence
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Nonviolence
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