Well first, be honest here. We suffered far more overreach in the previous Administration which was all to clearly revealed by Snowden and Manning. We had the press actively harassed and investigated by the DOJ and even the IRS. All we have now is the bluster but we don't have sycophants in government agencies jumping to do anything behind the scenes.

to be honest, just what in the hell do people in Western nations have to protest about? Not enough screen time? Someone driving a nicer car. The Western world is stupidly well off to the point they have to invent offenses! Whereas people in Hong Kong who enjoy a Western like environment are on the fringe of losing more of their freedoms to a country and regime which have proven over and over again, world opinion does not matter.

It certainly does not matter to the leaders of the tech industry we discuss here daily as they all trip over themselves to accommodate China's leadership by keeping manufacturing there and changing software to let that same regime to deny their people more rights and privacy.

I don't even want to start on the third world environment, where your primary concern is keeping you and your family alive.

Priorities please, reality please. Quit parroting the press and look at the world

Not to belittle your other points, but I'd say separating migrant parents from their kids is pretty damn low.

This Hong Kong situation is based on abdication of their human rights to a government guilty of the most egregious democide in history.

The USA has a politically incorrect orange man in the White House who gets offended easily.

Not sure how you draw parallels here but happy to understand better.

I disagree with the GP's equating the two, but there are events like outright murders of innocent people by police officers that never get protested in the US, except maybe by people in the black communities.

Those strike me like something that should be protested but isn't. In comparison, when years ago a police officer shot and killed a 16 year old for no reason in my country, there were outright riots and the officer is serving a life sentence.

Then again, I guess there are many things we don't protest.

> Those strike me like something that should be protested but isn't

We have elections. That gives our government a mandate to act and incentive to measure public opinion. There is a lot of progress needed on police reform, but don’t throw out the bounds we’ve made in the last decade alone.

Protest is prudent once democratic means have been exhausted, or to draw attention to an issue. Police violence already has the public’s attention. There is an ongoing debate around the proper solution, with trials around decriminalisation, special prosecutors, body cameras, et cetera going into play around the country.

We haven’t frequently seen 1/7th of a city rise up in protest because we have other ways of effecting change. Hong Kong did too. But Beijing doesn’t.

Sure, but don't underestimate how clear a signal protests send.

I don't think "all Trump supporters hate immigrants" is a fair characterization, given that there are quite a few immigrants who are Trump supporters themselves.

also, Godwin's law?

My girlfriend is from HK and she is very intense these days. She is very well educated and comes from a wealthy family. However, she feels a strong connection to HK, even-though she is not living there for over 10 years already (and does not want to return).

I have asked her about her emotions and feelings. To quote her. She says that she hates the Chinese. She hates China and all people living there. She feels that all actions that are linked to the Chinese government (such as the current law) are an attack on her country. Thus, she is posting a lot of biased and super heavy crap on social media these days and is full of hate against the police (who are ironically also Hong Kong people, but she does not care).

What we see there is just a terrible eruption of anti-China emotions. People need to vent.

Ironically, my girlfriend is also blaming the "rich Chinese" who are "coming to HK and buying all property, which prices out HK people". At the same time, her family owns X apartments in HK and in mainland China.

HK is not a country. And your GF is an ass.

I'm watching American politics closely, but it doesn't seem anywhere close to China.

Imagine if US was planning to send people suspected of offending Kim Jong Un into North Korea.

No need to imagine, Meng Wanzhou is still in Canada, and the US is telling British send Assange back. Wake up man.

The difference is that the US government isn't known for disappearing thousands of dissidents without trial and the president has a term limit. It's really not the same at all.

They have a very clear view of what lies at the bottom of the slippery slope.

I'm largely ignorant to the politics involved, but aren't these protests against extradition to mainland China? I imagine there's a social identity at play here that American's don't have.

America is incredible effective at suppressing protest. Not just as the protest is happening, but before it begins.