As it’s getting more difficult for me to communicate, I’ll be succinct.
"We shall set up our own opposition. Our real opponents, at heart, will accept this simulated opposition as their own and will show us their cards.. Our subjects will be convinced of the existence of full freedom fo speech."
Credit: fitzinfo.
The intention may be to establish credibility as a critic of something or someone by engaging in criticism of them while in fact covering up for them by omitting many details; to distance oneself publicly from something using innocuous or vague criticism even when ones own sympathies are privately with them; or to divert public attention away from a more heinous act by leaking information about something less heinous.
I have always found that more “friends” are compromised than I had thought at first.