I think the biggest error in this @iandenisjohnson article on Hong Kong is failing to recognize the transformative effect of six months of successful, autochtonous mass resistance on a rising generation of Hong Kong kids, and those watching them from China nybooks.com/daily/2019/11/…
@iandenisjohnson There is a profound social transformation underway in the schools and universities of the city that is going to leave its mark. And imagine being a young, idealistic kid elsewhere in China, hoping for a better life. What does it mean to have an example of successful resistance?
@iandenisjohnson Johnson also says that "as for the protesters, from a coldly logical point of view, their decision to use violence was a mistake." This is an error in two ways. First, it conflates violence against property with violence against persons
@iandenisjohnson While there have been incidents of protest violence against people, overall the "violence" has been almost exclusively targeted against property, with fairly strict limits on what is off-limits for destruction. Using the word 'violence' to describe this behavior is misleading
@iandenisjohnson More importantly, the destructive protest tactics have worked in a way purely peaceful tactics don't. As @Comparativist has argued, there used to be a social contract where a sufficiently large peaceful protest would lead to policy changes, after a decent interval for deniability
@iandenisjohnson @Comparativist This tacit arrangement broke down in the 2014 protests (again, parroting a good @comparativist essay here), which got nothing in return for weeks of protest except long jail sentences. Without that context, you can't honestly evaluate the tactics and victories of 2019
@iandenisjohnson @Comparativist Finally, it's dishonest to criticize "violent protest" without mentioning how the Hong Kong government has closed off *all* avenues of peaceful mass protest in Hong Kong. The last time people were allowed to assemble freely was August 18. Over a million showed up, in pouring rain
@iandenisjohnson @Comparativist Since then, a combination of mass transit closures, arbitrary arrest, aggressive police declarations of 'illegal assembly', rule by decree, pressure on schools and employers, and denial of letters of no objection has forestalled most attempts to show peaceful dissent in Hong Kong
@iandenisjohnson @Comparativist The only exception to this was the election this Sunday, which saw a massive turnout of nearly half the city's population. Johnson doesn't have to agree with this analysis, but to not mention this defining context, while criticizing the tactics it led to, is simply lazy.
@iandenisjohnson @Comparativist Anyway, use Pinboard
