A counter example is the CCP backing down from the Covid restrictions under popular pressure. If enough people put pressure, the government will react.

> Dictators will massacre their own people

You have to be reminded that the government (and the army) are themselves made of the people. This has the interesting consequences that the most brutal ones are actually oil-funded (because they can outsource security) or countries that have a racial/cultural divide (because they can rally one segment of the population against another, ie: Syria).