4 ms·

“A fairer fight”? It would have been a bloodbath.

by muglug 6y ago

seibelj 6y ago
I think living under the steel toed boot of communist dictatorship is something worth fighting and dying for. But I’m a freedom lover from the Land of the Free, not someone who could mentally accept living under a dictator at any cost.
- muglug 6y ago
  A lot of those freedom-lovers from the land of the free tried to prevent a democratic election from being ratified.
- monkey_monkey 6y ago
  Just wanted to let you know that cosplaying a freedom fighter on the internet is quite different from doing it in real life.
  - seibelj 6y ago
    It’s hilarious you think the US citizens would allow a President Xi type dictator to take over. You do not understand US culture.
    - monkey_monkey 6y ago
      Bro, please. Let's not make this any more embarrassing than it already is.
      - seibelj 6y ago
        Found the Chinese puppet account. You do realize your boss is one fat fucking loser right?
        dang 6y ago
        If you break the site guidelines this egregiously again we will ban you. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Comments like https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26455436 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26455436 aren't acceptable either. Please stop posting flamewar comments—it's not what this site is for. An experienced HN user like you ought to know and do much better.
      - dang 6y ago
        This is not a site for flamewar, and we ban accounts that post like this. Please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting here.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
  - nemo44x 6y ago
    One nice thing about having such a large military budget is our civilian population contains many millions of people with formal military and combat training. So yeah, there’s certainly Internet tough guys who just need an outlet to express their frustration. But there’s a large community of people that do in fact know which direction to point their rifle.
    - monkey_monkey 6y ago
      Sure. This dude isn't one of them though. And as the cosplaying freedom fighters found out in January, reality is different from q-fantasy.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
hntrader 6y ago
The (largely theoretical) argument is asymmetric warfare where the dictator and their family/sycophants/officers need to be constantly preoccupied with a credible threat of an assassin around every corner. This asymmetric warfare is then sufficiently destabilizing that (when combined with sanctions and external pressure) it leads to a successful overthrow. Of course, it's not realistic that the civilian populace will be capable of engaging in open-field combat with the military.
- muglug 6y ago
  The Reagan assassination attempt wasn’t for any political reason, but because a crazy person wanted to impress Jodie Foster.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
nemo44x 6y ago
It really depends on your tactics. Hong Kong is an interesting battlefield as it has very few advantages for a traditional military. Dense population and few open areas provide many tactical advantages for an insurrection. With these advantages and coordinating securely being generally available, I think an insurrection could create a lot of troubles for an occupying force. Lots of opportunities to document and share atrocities the occupying forces would commit as well which would at the very least ensure sympathetic governments and organizations would help continue the smuggling in of supplies and weapons.
- gostsamo 6y ago
  I'm playing the chinese government. You are the HK citizenship, well-armed with handguns. You have the city, you are protesting against my actions and during a protest the local police stations are occupied, occupied are also the universities, the tv stations and the local government. Self-proclaimed leaders of the protest go on air and announce that they are seceding from the totalitarian regime and HK is independent nation. Freedom loving citizens are blocking the road with mainline China, they are taking control of the airport and the sea port. The Chinese government in a few steps: 1. Cut off the internet, jam the radio signals and the satellite signals to blackout the entire island. Impose a sea blockade. 2. Stop the drinking water. 3. Wait 72 hours and gather the bodies. Blame local terrorists for destroying the water pipes. And this is only the simplest way to smash the resistance. Without mobile communications and GPS, all groups will be cut off from each other, exposed from the air to drone attacks, and totally unable to retreat, because there is nowhere to go.
  - hntrader 6y ago
    HK vs the CCP isn't a great case study, because the center of power is outside of the country and it isn't mixed in with the disgruntled people. A better counterfactual case study would be North Korea, Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia or present-day Myanmar; where the regime largely lives amongst (albeit in a stratified/segregated way) and selects from the populace that it controls. I'd be especially interested in the early days of the regime, before its power is fully solidified and when it's the most unstable.

“A fairer fight”? It would have been a bloodbath.

by muglug 6y ago

“A fairer fight”? It would have been a bloodbath.

I think living under the steel toed boot of communist dictatorship is something worth fighting and dying for. But I’m a freedom lover from the Land of the Free, not someone who could mentally accept living under a dictator at any cost.

muglug 6y ago
A lot of those freedom-lovers from the land of the free tried to prevent a democratic election from being ratified.
monkey_monkey 6y ago
Just wanted to let you know that cosplaying a freedom fighter on the internet is quite different from doing it in real life.
- seibelj 6y ago
  It’s hilarious you think the US citizens would allow a President Xi type dictator to take over. You do not understand US culture.
  - monkey_monkey 6y ago
    Bro, please. Let's not make this any more embarrassing than it already is.
    - seibelj 6y ago
      Found the Chinese puppet account. You do realize your boss is one fat fucking loser right?
      - dang 6y ago
        If you break the site guidelines this egregiously again we will ban you. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Comments like https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26455436 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26455436 aren't acceptable either. Please stop posting flamewar comments—it's not what this site is for. An experienced HN user like you ought to know and do much better.
    - dang 6y ago
      This is not a site for flamewar, and we ban accounts that post like this. Please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting here.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- nemo44x 6y ago
  One nice thing about having such a large military budget is our civilian population contains many millions of people with formal military and combat training. So yeah, there’s certainly Internet tough guys who just need an outlet to express their frustration. But there’s a large community of people that do in fact know which direction to point their rifle.
  - monkey_monkey 6y ago
    Sure. This dude isn't one of them though. And as the cosplaying freedom fighters found out in January, reality is different from q-fantasy.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

hntrader 6y ago

The (largely theoretical) argument is asymmetric warfare where the dictator and their family/sycophants/officers need to be constantly preoccupied with a credible threat of an assassin around every corner. This asymmetric warfare is then sufficiently destabilizing that (when combined with sanctions and external pressure) it leads to a successful overthrow. Of course, it's not realistic that the civilian populace will be capable of engaging in open-field combat with the military.

muglug 6y ago
The Reagan assassination attempt wasn’t for any political reason, but because a crazy person wanted to impress Jodie Foster.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]

nemo44x 6y ago

It really depends on your tactics. Hong Kong is an interesting battlefield as it has very few advantages for a traditional military. Dense population and few open areas provide many tactical advantages for an insurrection. With these advantages and coordinating securely being generally available, I think an insurrection could create a lot of troubles for an occupying force. Lots of opportunities to document and share atrocities the occupying forces would commit as well which would at the very least ensure sympathetic governments and organizations would help continue the smuggling in of supplies and weapons.

gostsamo 6y ago
I'm playing the chinese government. You are the HK citizenship, well-armed with handguns. You have the city, you are protesting against my actions and during a protest the local police stations are occupied, occupied are also the universities, the tv stations and the local government. Self-proclaimed leaders of the protest go on air and announce that they are seceding from the totalitarian regime and HK is independent nation. Freedom loving citizens are blocking the road with mainline China, they are taking control of the airport and the sea port. The Chinese government in a few steps: 1. Cut off the internet, jam the radio signals and the satellite signals to blackout the entire island. Impose a sea blockade. 2. Stop the drinking water. 3. Wait 72 hours and gather the bodies. Blame local terrorists for destroying the water pipes. And this is only the simplest way to smash the resistance. Without mobile communications and GPS, all groups will be cut off from each other, exposed from the air to drone attacks, and totally unable to retreat, because there is nowhere to go.
- hntrader 6y ago
  HK vs the CCP isn't a great case study, because the center of power is outside of the country and it isn't mixed in with the disgruntled people. A better counterfactual case study would be North Korea, Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia or present-day Myanmar; where the regime largely lives amongst (albeit in a stratified/segregated way) and selects from the populace that it controls. I'd be especially interested in the early days of the regime, before its power is fully solidified and when it's the most unstable.