The Western view of protest has been marred by the fact that we hear most about those that succeed: the toppled dictators, the noble sacrifices, the inmates turned presidents. In reality, many protests fail and the protesters end up unappreciated and even demonized. There are no clear statistics on failed protests for the very reason that failed protests, especially in repressive countries, rarely reach an audience beyond those who participated. But failures have their own impact. In the aftermath of the Andijon massacre, a joke circulated on Uzbek web forums: Q: Can an Uzbek participate in a
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