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Hong Kong protests: Authorities to announce face mask ban

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Hong Kong protests: Authorities to announce face mask ban

#41

Post by throwaway_law »

AstralStorm wrote: post #38
sixothree wrote: post #12

I think it odd that we have to look at another country losing its rights to understand the feeling of loss. Much of what they have been doing in Hong Kong would never have been allowed here in America.

Just wait a short while. USA was not tried yet by any internal strife since 60s, and even then that was mild.

How about Waco? Or the Bundy Stand off (2014 armed civilians illegally using federal lands for commercial purposes took up arms and the Federal government backed down)? Although not armed movements, how about they Occupy Movements?

Re: Hong Kong protests: Authorities to announce face mask ban

#42

Post by president »

CharlesColeman wrote: post #14

Will this have any practical effect on the protests? Haven't the authorities already declared that protesters are engaged in illegal activity, so what's one more act of civil disobedience? Also, aren't the "masks" worn by many of the protesters the kind of thing that's often worn in Asia for hygiene and pollution reasons, so this would ban even innocent behavior?

It's another tactic to justify increased force against protestors. The more "rules" that the protestors are breaking, the more the police/PLA will be empowered to assault them.

Re: Hong Kong protests: Authorities to announce face mask ban

#43

Post by ethbro »

authoritarian wrote: post #33
redisman wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The supremely naive "end of history"-era thinking has a lot of inertia. Now it's unclear who's left to fight for Democracy as the old champions are all dead and current generations have no concept of what that would even mean since they've just been reaping the rewards their whole lives.

Ah yes, all us youngings reaping the rewards of those that have come before us. Insane housing and real estate prices that few can afford, insane university tuition that few can afford, the pharmaceutical industry pushing dangerous drugs with impunity, the war on drugs costing trillions of dollars and leading to the militarization of police and a massive amount of incarcerated non-violent offenders, the destruction o…

And what have we done about that? I'm technically Gen Y, and I'll be the first to admit that with regards to protesting my generation seems:

- Uninformed

- Undisciplined

- Lazy

- Uncoordinated

People were self-organizing large civil society organizations and marching through clouds of tear gas and worse in the 1960-90s... and yet this current generation seems to think that posting a rant on Facebook is valuable?

Incoherent, naive anger is useless.

Re: Hong Kong protests: Authorities to announce face mask ban

#44

Post by thewholeview »

calderarrow wrote: post #25

During the American revolutionary war, France was a tremendous ally and instrumental to the colonies’ secession from Britain. The Marquis de Lafayette came over to fight for us, without pay, in his early 20s, forgoing his family’s desires and aristocratic opportunities. His family was so opposed to him going to the colonies, that local governments were involved in finding and preventing him from boarding ships. He ev…

While I have full respect for you to preach what you believe in, I'd like to urge the consideration for a detachment of promotion for democracy with regards to morality.

Whichever mode of governance is simple a practice of value proposition that a particular regime sees as fit for their particular regional control/political reign.

While democracy has its ostensible upsides, is such a protest at length really what's on the high moral ground?

Many protestors are students who have a large amount of time, but have only seen less of this world, albeit believing in an idealistic view. The ones who suffer are the ones who reside in HK and are running out of methods to meet ends for their family that they have to feed. Consider the bus drivers for the tourism industry that are basically out of job and are powerless as figuring out what's the best course of action at this moment?

Sure, maybe you can say a change is in dire need, via a certain perspective, it's absolutely respectable, though in the wake of being respectful for the whole population and the region, is such a protest which has lasted over 100 days truly the right course of action?

Think for the HKers, is it truly better to pursue an unstable democracy in the merit of preaching a perceived sense of idealism, or is it perhaps better to focus on economic growth and enabling an entire population to a higher living standard? Nobody has the correct answer and it's definitely up to every single one of us individually to consider.

Disclaimer: I am a Chinese so I may indeed have perceived bias, or just bias. Feel free to have a rational discussion with me and educate me on other perspectives, or even downvote me, all opinions are welcomed and respected.

Re: Hong Kong protests: Authorities to announce face mask ban

#45

Post by dang »

Pfhreak wrote: post #18
20190820234322 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I'm sorry, did you just seriously say, "The Chinese are not fundamentally good human beings"? Because I'm trying to read your comment as anything other than unbelievably racist and coming up empty.

Please don't feed the trolls. This is in the HN guidelines, under other wording: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.

Re: Hong Kong protests: Authorities to announce face mask ban

#47

Post by xkcd-sucks »

CharlesColeman wrote: post #35
calderarrow wrote: post #25

During the American revolutionary war, France was a tremendous ally and instrumental to the colonies’ secession from Britain. The Marquis de Lafayette came over to fight for us, without pay, in his early 20s, forgoing his family’s desires and aristocratic opportunities. His family was so opposed to him going to the colonies, that local governments were involved in finding and preventing him from boarding ships. He ev…

> Recently, I’ve been thinking about the HK scenario and wondering what I can do, but I can’t shake a nagging feeling that I could simply go over there and fight alongside the protestors. I often deflect with observations like “I don’t speak the language,” or “I don’t know what I would do to help,” and yet the thought keeps coming back. I'd say do it, if you feel this way. This guy did it: https://idlewords.com/2019/…

English is technically an official language of HK, most people that don't speak it are mainlanders.

Re: Hong Kong protests: Authorities to announce face mask ban

#48

Post by RcouF1uZ4gsC »

calderarrow wrote: post #25

During the American revolutionary war, France was a tremendous ally and instrumental to the colonies’ secession from Britain. The Marquis de Lafayette came over to fight for us, without pay, in his early 20s, forgoing his family’s desires and aristocratic opportunities. His family was so opposed to him going to the colonies, that local governments were involved in finding and preventing him from boarding ships. He ev…

The thing was that France and Britain actually engaged in a shooting war during the American Revolution. Without the direct military support of the French, Lafayette's efforts would likely have been in vain. It was the French Navy that bottled up Corwallis and Yorktown and forced the surrender that ended the war.

To be honest, the reality is that Hong Kong is just not worth the costs of a US-Chinese military conflict. Given the Chinese view of history and how they view the partition of China among the European powers in the 19th century, this is likely a red-line issue for them that they are willing to go all out on. For good reason, no other country sees it that way.

Re: Hong Kong protests: Authorities to announce face mask ban

#49

Post by Zarath »

ethbro wrote: post #43
authoritarian wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah yes, all us youngings reaping the rewards of those that have come before us. Insane housing and real estate prices that few can afford, insane university tuition that few can afford, the pharmaceutical industry pushing dangerous drugs with impunity, the war on drugs costing trillions of dollars and leading to the militarization of police and a massive amount of incarcerated non-violent offenders, the destruction o…

And what have we done about that? I'm technically Gen Y, and I'll be the first to admit that with regards to protesting my generation seems: - Uninformed - Undisciplined - Lazy - Uncoordinated People were self-organizing large civil society organizations and marching through clouds of tear gas and worse in the 1960-90s... and yet this current generation seems to think that posting a rant on Facebook is valuable? Inco…

And what did marching through tear gas give us? More interventionism in South America and... Ronald Reagan?

Re: Hong Kong protests: Authorities to announce face mask ban

#50

Post by ethbro »

Zarath wrote: post #49
ethbro wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And what have we done about that? I'm technically Gen Y, and I'll be the first to admit that with regards to protesting my generation seems: - Uninformed - Undisciplined - Lazy - Uncoordinated People were self-organizing large civil society organizations and marching through clouds of tear gas and worse in the 1960-90s... and yet this current generation seems to think that posting a rant on Facebook is valuable? Inco…

And what did marching through tear gas give us? More interventionism in South America and... Ronald Reagan?

De facto voting rights for African Americans, desegregation, and women's rights to control their own bodies.
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