I like what Hitchens wrote in Letters which is somewhat related. Discussing the example of nuclear weapons, he says "You exist at the whim of people whose power does not derive from your own consent, and who regard you as expendable, disposable...."
However, when meeting a minister or senior functionary of this regime, which is a privilege I quite often enjoy, I do not act as if I am shaking Caligula's blood-bolted mit. (I do sometimes content myself with thinking that if they knew what was in my mind and heart, they would shrivel as if cursed and blasted.) So I practice cognitive and emotional dissonance."
Most times I think this takes more discipline and is more worthwhile than being an alienated leftist who regularly questions the integrity of his or her fellow leftists - is leftier than thou in other words - and refuses to condemn anti-Empire atrocities, etc.
Peter