I used to try to make the 'hoisted by your own petard' arguments to no avail. I think it's important to understand that the state allows and in fact in many way

I used to try to make the 'hoisted by your own petard' arguments to no avail. I think it's important to understand that the state allows and in fact in many ways encourages progressive dissent as a tool to curtail civil liberties. Once civil liberties have been dismissed the progressives will no longer be needed and the dissent will no longer be tolerated. It will be a very different world. I think the anti-Israel war-crime protestors found themselves rather surprised when they were no longer treated with kid gloves and treated rather harshly. I think principles are only principles when they have a cost, otherwise they're a fashion, so the the anti-Israel protestors are the progressives I most admire. I'm not brave enough to throw myself against the gears of the machine and have elected to operate in other ways.