Thread by @aeoxec

I know I'm not really famous or anything but I wanted to put my thoughts down on like, civil unrest I barely know things about so, that's what Twitter is good for I guess. Also, trying out the whole "the plus sign in the bottom right makes an auto thread" thing

This is totally just my rambling, and if you hate what I wrote because it is factually incorrect then please comment. Otherwise, telling me I'm wrong simply because it's... not what you think... isn't going to change my mind much.

Anyway, starting with HK, it's kind of disturbing because I feel my parents are oddly opposed to the rioting despite 1) disliking mainland China and 2) being from Hong Kong themselves. My mom specifically got super irritated that the younger generation--

is rioting, and one dude gave an interview that said he wished parents of those millenials would come too, because it isn't just that they're rioting for the sake of it - HK independence matters to them and their future. She said, "why would you expect parents --

to go and get hit with rubber bullets or tear gas, we're old" and I was immediate to stop that conversation at the time because that's not something I want to get into. But, why are children getting those things? Is it normal to hurt people for "treason" aka speaking--

the truth? HK isn't even technically fully integrated into China's laws, and still have their freedom of speech (technically). The current unrest is because of the extradition bill, which I will VERY MUCH simplify. Essentially, HK wants the power to ship people--

whom they believe has caused a crime elsewhere, to be handed over to the correct authorities. Here's the problem. On paper, it sounds pretty reasonable. If you murder someone on vacation, and go home, and then are found overwhelmingly guilty from evidence, you should--

be able to be served justice (literally what had happened and why this bill was proposed). But right now, they can't because they don't have that agreement in place. That's kind of.. awful. And maybe, in a more reasonable political and social climate, this would have been great--

But not now. HK has been fighting for ages for both their right to continue their democratic process, and have elected officials, as well as pushing against Mainland China (hereafter MC) putting their puppets and pawns into their government. The current government has--

elected democratic officials from HK, but a lot of seats are being held by companies and MC officials too. Despite huge votes for pro-democratic officials, they don't actually hold majority. The current Chief Executive, like all the others, is pro-MC and pushing for--

that narrative, and actively working towards integrating HK into MC well before the set agreed deadline of 2047. If this bill went through, MC can accuse anyone of causing a crime, on their territory (eg.... 'treason') and have them shipped back to MC, tried by--

a court system controlled by the authoritarian government, and imprisoned. Let alone the economic disaster this would mean for business in HK, we all know that MC is still McFreakin communist, and not to sound stupid, but like.. guys we know why we don't want people--

to be arrested and tried in North Korea. This is the same concept. The extradition bill was cancelled, but not scrapped. It can be brought back, and then what? It's a stepping stone to stop democracy in HK. MC already started to integrate their propaganda into--

HKs education system, set up a garrison in HK, put their military vehicles along the border, started army drills in HK in view - at this point if you don't think it's a thinly veiled threat, you are actively fighting against seeing the truth. This brings me to--

Kashmir. I know, not to anyone's surprise, much less about the politics of India and Kashmir. But I CAN speak to the things they're doing there. I can draw connecting lines to the similarities between Kashmir and HK right now.

From what I'm aware of, the new problems in Kashmir (I'm not going to start on what's BEEN happening in Kashmir) is the revoking of Article 370 in India. Article 370 (AGAIN, super simplified) allowed Kashmir to maintain its autonomy despite being a part of India--

meaning it's own laws, governance, and rights separate from Indian laws/governance/rights. Kashmir IS a part of India (as HK is a part of China), but has been given its allowance to operate as a separate entity. There was a provision that discussed HOW it could be--

dissolved or altered, but as the government body that was supposed to be responsible for that was removed, the Supreme Court of India literally ruled that Article 370 is a permanent addition to the Constitution, and cementing Kashmir's legal independence.

So why is it important, why change it now? I can't fathom why nationalists do that thing where they strip people of rights for their own kicks, to be honest. But the change now has 2 results, and honestly, we all saw it coming. Campaign promises aside, India started--

stacking troops on the border (although let's be real, I don't think India ever respected Kashmir's borders and autonomy) and just waited around for the second Article 370 was revoked and went in their to "claim what's theirs". Including suppressing religious differences

If that isn't clear enough - murdering and beating people for not having the same religion. And isn't it nifty that.... Kashmir.... is just chock full of non-Hindus... because they were supposed to be safe there. Because we've seen people make militias and vigilantes--

and just go to kill people SUSPECTED (no actual evidence) of having beef. I know it's been a while, but does anyone remember the Templars and the Crusades and how that was Really Fucking Bad? Same shit, but somehow, much worse.

I don't know how to explain that hurting innocent people is bad, because that should be self-evident. Even if you believe that Kashmir should be fully integrated into India, that's not right. India is sacking Kashmir, as if it were 200 AD and Rome is sacking the rest of the--

Greek cities, burning, raping, pillaging everything in their wake, and then claiming the land. India is doing this, and it's "technically legal" but immoral and violent. Supporting it because it's "technically legal" is saying that it's okay for genocide to happen, as long as--

the laws at the time make it legal. Wanton murder to achieve some kind of empire wet dream is wrong, and should be condemned no matter when the offences are being committed. Retroactively feeling sorry for the atrocities committed is not good enough. We have recorded history--

of how bad an idea it would be to kill thousands of people because it's "legal". We don't get a pass for "not knowing better" because we do. We chose leaders that seem to despise compassion, empathy, and moral virtue because what? Money and power is more valuable--

than human lives? Is it worth it to throw your values away, to convince yourself that some people don't deserve human rights because they stand in your way of greed? Humans may or may not be hardwired to crave a tribal mentality, but some people also crave manipulating and--

ruining people's lives for their entertainment. It's wrong, and we are not creatures unable to control and reason with ourselves to understand why not all the things we WANT should be things we get. Dogs want chocolate - it doesn't mean they should eat it. We aren't dogs.

We have giant fucking brains, thanks to a lot of effort on evolutions part, so we can make better fucking decisions on our survival. We cannot survive alone. We can't live in complete isolation. And in our world, we can't afford the tribalistic mentality, because we don't fight--

with sticks anymore. This isn't some kind of thing where we just want an inch of land so we can find food to eat. Our fights are about making sure others don't have power, and we make weapons capable of decimating the world's capacity to sustain life.

We can do better, we should expect better, and we shouldn't let one person dictate giant swaths of communities and areas because they don't know. Doing the right thing isn't always convenient, but doing the convenient thing is the best way to end any social progress we've made

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