Something that just occurred to me: a lot of people identify with and cheer on the protagonist in movies who knowingly takes a difficult decision at great cost to themselves or even others, a potentially destructive or violent one, which they know must be taken for the greater good.

And yet, many of these same people will immediately condemn radical direct actions undertaken by activists under exactly these circumstances, where they only see the outcome and not the process of careful deliberation and consideration that went into it.