5 ms·
You can't run for the local legislature unless you are approved. They stop some people from leaving at the airport if they protested. They arrest you for minor
by rnk 4y ago
You can't run for the local legislature unless you are approved. They stop some people from leaving at the airport if they protested. They arrest you for minor acts of resistance like the color of your shirt. They removed statues that were commemorating the Tiananmen Square protests. If you are a westerner then maybe you can keep living your life though.
- djbebs 4y ago
- AyyWS 4y agoThe fact that you can talk this nonsense here proves the difference between HK and the west.
- pphysch 4y ago
- xdennis 4y ago> Your country does all these things. You're simply not being serious. In the US you can commemorate any massacre that happened in the US. In Hong Kong you're no longer allowed to commemorate the Tiananmen massacre.
- pphysch 4y agoWho isn't being serious here? In parts of USA you are forbidden from glorifying the biggest separatist crisis, the Civil War. The US government actively destroys monuments to the separatist side of the civil war. Please, get a broader perspective.
- krastanov 4y agoIn the US elected representatives in a few places have decided to remove statues of proponents of slavery, after significant public pressure. This is not happening to statues commemorating deaths of soldiers or protestors. And nothing stops you from waving a confederate flag and "celebrating your heritage" if that is your belief system. Actually, the state-funded police department would at least pretend to send officers to separate you from counter-protesters and attempt to make sure both sides are protected. This seems quite different from removing statues commemorating student protests (that went bloody due to state violence)
- pphysch 4y agoI guarantee you that more Chinese people approve of their government's approach to separatism than the Americans do. i.e. more Americans per capita support the Confederacy than Chinese support Western separatist movements in China. If you have been to both places, this should be obvious.
- krastanov 4y agoThat is true (and pretty obvious), but the attitude to separatism was not remotely relevant to my argument, which is the whole point.
- pphysch 4y agoIf most people support it, then it is the will of the people. To oppose that would be undemocratic. Not that complicated.
- krastanov 4y agoOn the contrary, an equally important base principle of the modern democracies coming out of the Enlightenment is that the minority should be protected from the "tyranny of the majority"[1]. Don't get me wrong, it is easy to agree with you that the majority of the Chinese people might enjoy the strong-arm stability provided by their totalitarian government, but there is no way around the fact that minority opinions in China frequently get brutally stomped out, while minority opinions in (flawed) democracies like the US have many (imperfect) protections. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyranny_of_the_majority https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyranny_of_the_majority
- betwixthewires 4y agoThis is a flat out lie. You can absolutely glorify the south in the civil war, and people do it. You can even do things that most consider abhorrent, you can glorify slavery if you want, speak positively about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. You can glorify the assassination of any US president who was assassinated in fact. Some people won't like it, but you can do it and no state goons are going to come disappear you in the night. It is not illegal anywhere in the US.
- pphysch 4y agoDo any of those things publicly in the average US city and let me know how that works out for your career (and therefore ability to afford housing and healthcare).
- macintux 4y agoThe government allowing you to celebrate slavery doesn’t mean fellow citizens are obliged to employ you. Freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom from repercussions.
- pphysch 4y agoThis supports my thesis that America's primary value is anti-authoritarianism and doesn't actually care about human rights.
- macintux 4y agoThe diminishment of authoritarianism is a necessary precondition for human rights.
- pphysch 4y agoComplete nonsense. Authority is necessary to guarantee human rights when you are dealing with groups of more than ~1000 people. Anarchy at that scale leads to massive human rights violations. Americans/Anglos are historically inept at governance and concluded that all governments are inept and evil.
- avidiax 4y agoMaybe no country should do these things.
- pphysch 4y agoMaybe start in your own country instead of a distant country that just happens to be the primary enemy of your own authoritarian regime.