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This reminds me (in kind, not degree) of how the Yellow Vests were treated by the French state and corporate media. They were literally labeled "breakers" (as i

This reminds me (in kind, not degree) of how the Yellow Vests were treated by the French state and corporate media. They were literally labeled "breakers" (as in vandals) across the board, the word "violence" was incessantly repeated in as many contexts as possible surrounding protest days, video of blatant human rights violations would often be ignored in coverage while vandalism or looting replayed nearly non-stop, etc.

sidibe 7y ago
I dont even think it's similar in kind. Even during the violence everyone, even Macron and French state media gave lip service to their grievances and went to great lengths to at least pretend to sympathize while China is hostilely mischaracterizing HK protestors and encouraging mainlanders to hate.
- guerrilla 7y ago
  This difference does not negate the similarities that I listed which make them of the same kind. The French state doesn't get a free pass on its human rights abuses and propaganda because its figurehead negotiated with the other side.
- coldtea 7y ago
  >Even during the violence everyone, even Macron and French state media gave lip service to their grievances and went to great lengths to at least pretend to sympathize The SWAT police had hit an eldery woman badly, and Macron said to the press "I hope this teaches her a lesson". I think that's enough of the sympathising and faux-grievances...
pluma 7y ago
Incidentally, a lot of Chinese twitter "bots" (or rather accounts that spread Chinese propaganda, whether they're manually run by actual humans or not) reply to tweets about the Hong Kong protests with sensationalist articles about the yellow vests and how France is "collapsing". That said, there are interesting takes on the yellow vests that are still critical of them without simply painting them as vandals. For example one article pointed out that the yellow vests are overwhelmingly white and their treatment is noticeably tamer than that of equally or less violent protesters in previous years who were predominantly people of color. As an outsider the yellow vests movement (especially now that it has been copied internationally) seems like it has a few legitimate concerns but they are swamped in a confusing mix of everything from anarchocommunists to ecofascists. It doesn't help that some of the international copycats are obviously far-right (because nazis seem to love co-opting populist movements for their own purposes).
- guerrilla 7y ago
  Russia and Iran use the same tactic you mention. RT/Ruptly would make huge spectacles of Yellow Vest protests, which I think was obviously to distract from or justify their own operation. Every chance RT gets, they point out how Europe is "collapsing."
  - coldtea 7y ago
    Or, you know, some of us actually like to point the hypocrisy regarding the Yellow Vests (including millions of people in France who support the movement), and apparently anyone with any different opinion is considered some kind of agent...
    - guerrilla 7y ago
      Yeah, I'm the person who did that and wrote the comment you're responding to as well, turns out.
  - rjf72 7y ago
    Russia is very much in support of a multi-polar world and so of course they're going to actively report on activities that paint our global hegemony in a negative light. But at the same time much of the 'western' world's media tends to be vehemently in favor of said hegemony, and consequently tend to actively report on activities that paint the 'outsiders' in a negative light. But let's consider the yellow vest protests, in terms of scale and consequence, for just one moment. At their peak they attracted hundreds of thousands of people and have resulted in thousands of injuries largely at the hands of police violence. There have been numerous blindings due to police intentionally firing 'nonlethal' weapons at protesters' faces. Others have been mutilated or lost limbs due to police using tear gas canisters that are occasionally laced with explosives to deter protesters from simply throwing them back at police. This [1] interview from the Guardian shows what said 'tear gas' can do. There have also been numerous deaths. Most have been tangential (vehicular related) but one was quite dystopic. An 80 year old woman who was killed after being hit by a police gas canister. She was not involved in the protests. She was killed while at her window after being struck by a tear gas canister. [2] Biases in what is reported on by either ideologies media does not mean what is being reported on is fake, nor does it mean that what either group chooses not to report on is not relevant. If something of an identical scale to the Yellow Vest protests was happening in mainland China, with comparable consequences, it would be being reported on 24/7 by the 'western' media as an example of China engaging in systemic violence against people just seeking 'freedom'. And that is simply if it was of the same size. Now imagine you scale up something to proportional size based on population. China has ~ 21x as many people as France. Such a protest there would involve millions of protesters, tens of thousands of injuries, and hundreds of deaths. Same proportions and consequences, but it now sounds so different doesn't it? [1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoYFjryuFjs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoYFjryuFjs [2] - https://www.bbc.com/news/world-46429930 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-46429930
Kuinox 7y ago
I don't remember that they were labeled as "breaker". Yes, sadly there were blatant human rights violation. "breakers" are here at every protests, they doesn't care about the movement itself but are here only to break things.

sidibe 7y ago

I dont even think it's similar in kind. Even during the violence everyone, even Macron and French state media gave lip service to their grievances and went to great lengths to at least pretend to sympathize while China is hostilely mischaracterizing HK protestors and encouraging mainlanders to hate.

guerrilla 7y ago
This difference does not negate the similarities that I listed which make them of the same kind. The French state doesn't get a free pass on its human rights abuses and propaganda because its figurehead negotiated with the other side.
coldtea 7y ago
>Even during the violence everyone, even Macron and French state media gave lip service to their grievances and went to great lengths to at least pretend to sympathize The SWAT police had hit an eldery woman badly, and Macron said to the press "I hope this teaches her a lesson". I think that's enough of the sympathising and faux-grievances...

pluma 7y ago

Incidentally, a lot of Chinese twitter "bots" (or rather accounts that spread Chinese propaganda, whether they're manually run by actual humans or not) reply to tweets about the Hong Kong protests with sensationalist articles about the yellow vests and how France is "collapsing". That said, there are interesting takes on the yellow vests that are still critical of them without simply painting them as vandals. For example one article pointed out that the yellow vests are overwhelmingly white and their treatment is noticeably tamer than that of equally or less violent protesters in previous years who were predominantly people of color. As an outsider the yellow vests movement (especially now that it has been copied internationally) seems like it has a few legitimate concerns but they are swamped in a confusing mix of everything from anarchocommunists to ecofascists. It doesn't help that some of the international copycats are obviously far-right (because nazis seem to love co-opting populist movements for their own purposes).

guerrilla 7y ago
Russia and Iran use the same tactic you mention. RT/Ruptly would make huge spectacles of Yellow Vest protests, which I think was obviously to distract from or justify their own operation. Every chance RT gets, they point out how Europe is "collapsing."
- coldtea 7y ago
  Or, you know, some of us actually like to point the hypocrisy regarding the Yellow Vests (including millions of people in France who support the movement), and apparently anyone with any different opinion is considered some kind of agent...
  - guerrilla 7y ago
    Yeah, I'm the person who did that and wrote the comment you're responding to as well, turns out.
- rjf72 7y ago
  Russia is very much in support of a multi-polar world and so of course they're going to actively report on activities that paint our global hegemony in a negative light. But at the same time much of the 'western' world's media tends to be vehemently in favor of said hegemony, and consequently tend to actively report on activities that paint the 'outsiders' in a negative light. But let's consider the yellow vest protests, in terms of scale and consequence, for just one moment. At their peak they attracted hundreds of thousands of people and have resulted in thousands of injuries largely at the hands of police violence. There have been numerous blindings due to police intentionally firing 'nonlethal' weapons at protesters' faces. Others have been mutilated or lost limbs due to police using tear gas canisters that are occasionally laced with explosives to deter protesters from simply throwing them back at police. This [1] interview from the Guardian shows what said 'tear gas' can do. There have also been numerous deaths. Most have been tangential (vehicular related) but one was quite dystopic. An 80 year old woman who was killed after being hit by a police gas canister. She was not involved in the protests. She was killed while at her window after being struck by a tear gas canister. [2] Biases in what is reported on by either ideologies media does not mean what is being reported on is fake, nor does it mean that what either group chooses not to report on is not relevant. If something of an identical scale to the Yellow Vest protests was happening in mainland China, with comparable consequences, it would be being reported on 24/7 by the 'western' media as an example of China engaging in systemic violence against people just seeking 'freedom'. And that is simply if it was of the same size. Now imagine you scale up something to proportional size based on population. China has ~ 21x as many people as France. Such a protest there would involve millions of protesters, tens of thousands of injuries, and hundreds of deaths. Same proportions and consequences, but it now sounds so different doesn't it? [1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoYFjryuFjs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoYFjryuFjs [2] - https://www.bbc.com/news/world-46429930 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-46429930

Kuinox 7y ago

I don't remember that they were labeled as "breaker". Yes, sadly there were blatant human rights violation. "breakers" are here at every protests, they doesn't care about the movement itself but are here only to break things.