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My take from your post is that you now see yourself as better than the Hong Kongers you once admired when you were younger. You were never really sympathetic, y

by xenihn 6y ago

My take from your post is that you now see yourself as better than the Hong Kongers you once admired when you were younger. You were never really sympathetic, you just respected HK's wealth, and the power that came with it, until you realized that they no longer have that power. Now that it's been superseded by the mainland, your respect has been replaced with disdain. >Racism against mainlanders is rampant That isn't racism. The vast majority of Hong Kongers are the same race as the vast majority of Mainlanders. I don't know what the correct word is. You are ignoring the primary reason HKers are rioting. Upward mobility in HK is hampered despite it being a world-class city with a highly educated populace. Many people in HK feel hopeless living in a society where they have to work insane hours and still can't afford property in a culture that places a very high value on owning it. Hundreds of thousands of young HKers want to leave, but can't (at least not for anywhere they would want to emigrate to). I believe there would have been riots even if the accelerated transition was not an issue. It just happened to be the tipping point that set an extremely frustrated and angry youth population off.

FooBarWidget 6y ago
> My take from your post is that you now see yourself as better than the Hong Kongers you once admired when you were younger. You were never really sympathetic, you just respected HK's wealth, and the power that came with it, until you realized that they no longer have that power. Now that it's been superseded by the mainland, your respect has been replaced with disdain. This is false. I do not understand why you got this from my post. Before the 2019 protests happened, I thought highly of Hong Kongers. When the protests started, I still thought highly of Hong Kongers. Only after I've seen evidence of irrationality, of moves that make no sense, of violence against innocent people, did I start to have a bad opinion of those who support secessionism and xenophobia. > This isn't racism [...] I don't know what the correct word is. Agreed with this point. Let's call it xenophobia. > You are ignoring the primary reason HKers are rioting. Upward mobility in HK is hampered despite it being a world-class city with a highly educated populace. I am not ignoring it, but I will admit that my essay did not make that point clear. You are completely correct in saying that upward mobility is a big factor. See also this reply in which I explicitly pointed that out: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23769808 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23769808 The problem with the upward mobility issue is: why do the protesters not talk about this? The upward mobility problem was not caused by Beijing, it's caused by Hong Kong's own elites, whose power was derived from the British system which Beijing did not change. So why protest against Beijing? Do they think Beijing is the source of all their suffering? Do they think democracy and freedom is a magic pill for all those problems? Why not talk about the actual problems? Why have there been no attempts to address those actual problems together with Beijing?

by xenihn 6y ago

FooBarWidget 6y ago

> My take from your post is that you now see yourself as better than the Hong Kongers you once admired when you were younger. You were never really sympathetic, you just respected HK's wealth, and the power that came with it, until you realized that they no longer have that power. Now that it's been superseded by the mainland, your respect has been replaced with disdain. This is false. I do not understand why you got this from my post. Before the 2019 protests happened, I thought highly of Hong Kongers. When the protests started, I still thought highly of Hong Kongers. Only after I've seen evidence of irrationality, of moves that make no sense, of violence against innocent people, did I start to have a bad opinion of those who support secessionism and xenophobia. > This isn't racism [...] I don't know what the correct word is. Agreed with this point. Let's call it xenophobia. > You are ignoring the primary reason HKers are rioting. Upward mobility in HK is hampered despite it being a world-class city with a highly educated populace. I am not ignoring it, but I will admit that my essay did not make that point clear. You are completely correct in saying that upward mobility is a big factor. See also this reply in which I explicitly pointed that out: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23769808 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23769808 The problem with the upward mobility issue is: why do the protesters not talk about this? The upward mobility problem was not caused by Beijing, it's caused by Hong Kong's own elites, whose power was derived from the British system which Beijing did not change. So why protest against Beijing? Do they think Beijing is the source of all their suffering? Do they think democracy and freedom is a magic pill for all those problems? Why not talk about the actual problems? Why have there been no attempts to address those actual problems together with Beijing?