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avmich

> the venerable western democracies hate and fear dissent as much as those loathsome dictators do

Who specifically hate and fear dissent in western democracies, and what's the mechanism against that?

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>Who specifically hate and fear dissent in western democracies

the people and entities in power

>what's the mechanism against that?

disarming the population

I don't buy that as a general principal. You get the odd fascist leader of democracies that wants to do that in say Hungary, Turkey, even the US got a whiff of it. But most people and most politicians actually like democracy and support the ideas around it, they want to be left along and live in peace and prosperity. Pols want power and to crush the other political side in parliment, but ending public dissent is not the plan of most political parties or politicians.

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