David Brooks in NYT on the struggle for freedom, remember that USA?
My guess is that if technology helps the protesters become 30 percent more effective, it helps the state become 70 percent more effective.
Many suspect that China will eventually crush these protests. They’ll round up leaders and force businesses to fire participants. Many suspect America will never step in to help.
DB(2)
The American right no longer believes in spreading democracy to foreigners. The American left embraces a national narrative that emphasizes slavery and oppression, not that America is a beacon or an example. Neither party any longer sees America as a vanguard nation whose very mission is to advance universal democracy and human dignity.
DB(3)
But there’s something stubborn about the Hong Kongers and deceptively powerful about their cause. Other protesters dreamed of freedom. These people have already lived it. It’s part of their identity. They will prove more ferocious in defense of liberty than the skeptics imagine. Along the way they might rekindle the sense of democratic mission that used to burn so forcefully in American hearts.
China will pounce, they're just waiting for the right optics...
@Madken65 i don't think Optics will matter much. remember Tiananmen Sq. The world saw that even then- and they didn't care.
@Wolvie Different world now due to access all the time...we'll see
@Madken65 Such a hopeful and at the same time sad statement. Filthy Lucre has become the driving force for Americans in power today, not freedom, not justice, not the endeavor to give each generation a better, free world for all.
@Madken65 i am so afraid for the people of HK- i admire and support what they are doing- but my God- i worry about China and what they will do. beyond what has already been done- so scary