@NSFAN"...Only authoritarian systems can protect democracy? How is this not hypocrisy by western democracy worshipers?"
That is how liberalism works. Protect the people how bad they are, give them freedom of expression even though it oppressing people, as long as not harming the society's security, they allowed to live. The government only engaged when the people's physical condition and their democracy are threatened.
Like how Western Greece treated their conquered anti-Western Persian people