Opinion I stand with Hong kong

[sweede]

Yeh buddy the commies are monitoring me on sherdog.

Interesting to see it from a scared vistor using Tor browser point of view.

 

[Bargey]

China probably accounts for a very very large portion of NBA revenue. No amount of personal feelings about China as a nation is going to force the NBA to denounce what may be their biggest market. There are more self-professed NBA fans in China than there are people in America.

Fuck em. Chinese NBA fans need the NBA far more than the NBA needs them. You think 40 mil salaries are going to disappear if all the Wang Chengs in the world stop watching?

 

[K-Bag]

Fill the country with uppercuts.

 

[Whippy McGee]

The NBA cancelled their All Star game in North Carolina, just because they wanted males in men's bathrooms and females in women's bathrooms. Gay rights in China? ROFL! Where does the NBA stand on Freedoms, Liberties, Gay Rights, etc. in China? WHERE THE $$$$$ IS. This is pathetic.

 

[Gregolian]

The NBA cancelled their All Star game in North Carolina, just because they wanted males in men's bathrooms and females in women's bathrooms. Gay rights in China? ROFL! Where does the NBA stand on Freedoms, Liberties, Gay Rights, etc. in China? WHERE THE $$$$$ IS. This is pathetic.

 

[machidafan99]

"one country, two systems" --Machidafan99

 

[SpartanKhmy]

The NBA cancelled their All Star game in North Carolina, just because they wanted males in men's bathrooms and females in women's bathrooms. Gay rights in China? ROFL! Where does the NBA stand on Freedoms, Liberties, Gay Rights, etc. in China? WHERE THE $$$$$ IS. This is pathetic.

They gotta get their shoes made on time, right? Well at least the players got the leauge do do away with the term 'owners'. We should applaud such bravery and heroics fighting for social justice!

 

[sangreporsangre]

NBA is so woke when it comes to letting cross-dressers into your daughter's changeroom, but they have no problem with what China is doing apparently. And I guess the cat must have the tongue of all those woke players and coaches.

 

[Denter]

The NBA cancelled their All Star game in North Carolina, just because they wanted males in men's bathrooms and females in women's bathrooms. Gay rights in China? ROFL! Where does the NBA stand on Freedoms, Liberties, Gay Rights, etc. in China? WHERE THE $$$$$ IS. This is pathetic.

You can really see the cozy relationship between state & corporate censorship here. If the NBA is obviously enforcing the whims of the Chinese government--in exchange for receiving a favorable business climate in the CPRC--what conclusions can we draw about the political censorship exercised by western companies?

Suppose (as a thought experiment) an unnamed Western liberal regime is growing wary of dissent (several recent electoral shocks have challenged prevailing orthodoxy), but the regime's hands are tied by outdated 18th century legal norms about "rights" and so forth. Suppose a small handful of powerful media conglomerates took control of most public communications in that nation. What services might they offer the neoliberal regime in exchange for shelter from antitrust enforcement?

 

[KaNesDeath]

I find this funny. For we're seeing the hypocrisy of corporations so they can have access to the Chinese market. Creators of a cartoon show displayed more strength.

 

[Orgasmo]

That may be part of the reason , but another reason could be linguistic since HKers speak Cantonese while mainlanders, unless from Guangzhou and other Cantonese speaking areas, speak Mandarin. San Fran lefties speak the same language as Southern conservatives. Language is a huge fault-line everywhere in the world.

Yes I thought about that too. There were two kids in class from Guangzhou in my high school. While they were definitely on more friendly terms with the Hongers, they still prefer to hang out with the mainland Chinese crowd at the time. The divide extends beyond just linguistic. This protest is polarizing both sides further.

High housing prices is a huge deal, a problem in large part stemming from the fact the HK government (now the PRC) owns all the land and leases it . But rich Mainland money coming in and raising rents and home prices also breeds resentment, just as Canadians in places like Vancouver resent the high cost of rent and real estate in large part due to mainland Chinese parking their cash there.

Yep, same case in Vancouver where it drives resenting towards Chinese. I blame the government more for being complicit in the scheme though, since it was benefiting off the arrangement. The municipal government was getting more tax revenues since property tax was based on the price of your house. The provincial government got donors and foreign investments from China. The federal government was making money hand over fist by essentially selling Canadian residence status by promoting "investor immigrant". Chinese played flaws in the system, and nobody bothered to fix the flaws because it was good times.

Same thing with HK, where the government depend on land sales and companies operating in China for general revenue. It's disconnected with the working population. While not quite CCP puppets, it represents the interest of the tycoons who usually lean towards China due to their business ties. Funny that the Heritage Foundation, a Republican thinktank, saw Hong Kong as some sort of free market utopia. The place has been a pressure cooker for years.

You sound pretty knowledgeable about this stuff like you have first hand experience. What's your background? Mine is growing up with Chinese kids in Vancouver and working a few years for a real estate developer when Chinese were buying up condos like hot cakes. I also spent a few months in China in my early 20's in Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Beijing and Shenzhen.

My British Chinese friends back in England also do not like to associate themselves with the mainland. However they will call themselves ethnically Chinese , not Hong Kongese.

It's mind boggling to watch this unfold. You have a city of people that depends on China for their living necessities (food, water, electricity) as well as business market access. Lot of them see themselves as New York of the East. At the same time, many of them want nothing to do with China, seeing it as backwards and oppressive. They hate seeing mainland Chinese flooding their city. If split personality could be generalized to a group, this is probably what it looks like.​

 

[Andy Capp]

Who does this on Sherdog?

I've always had the feeling that Saudi Arabia and China are getting liberals and right to dig down the battle ax for a brief moment. When it comes to Hong Kong´s "netizens", I understand them completely. An independent judiciary, an independent civil service and free press and freedom of speech. Freedom Hong Kong has enjoyed but has recently been shrinking.

To get a taste of what freedom means and someone trying to remove it should make all reasonable people stand together whether you are liberal or right.

Yes, I think you're right about that last sentence, it should be a non-partisan issue but in the land of the no longer quite so brave nor so free, there is one side in particular that never met a scapegoat* they didn't like.

I'm not sure what you intended with the second paragraph but it seems like you were saying it looks like the bad acts of China and Saudi Arabia were pushing the two political sides to settle differences. I can't say I agree. But I'm not standing pat on that.

When I first read this I thought I would say that may have been true until Obama got elected, or it may have been true until Steve Bannon's big idea and the likes of Cambridge Analytica coming to be, but now I think contradictory evidence goes back to at least Dubya. The thing is, even if a vast number of Americans, liberal and conservative, left and right, are filled with empathy for the plight of Hong Kong, 99.99 percent of them won't do shit no matter what happens unless it results in a shooting war.

It's not going to bring them any closer together (the die hard believers, I mean now specifically) on issues like abortion, voter ID, and so on. IMO, that is.





*meant in a very broad sense to include terms used in a like manner to code words and aimed at discrediting on the basis of identity alone, such as near constant use of neutral group names as a fuzzily defined negative connotation, e.g. (dirty) leftist, purple hair, etc. Not everyone that does this does so consciously, but a great many do.

 

[Andy Capp]

whaddaya gonna do? its the American way.

- IGIT

Well, you can always grow some 'Tegrity.

 

[val_lixembeau]

Mainlanders hatred of “HK separatists” is fueled by strong nationalism in the mainland. Nationalist propaganda is well rooted in society and regardless of what you are talking about, they always find a way to call someone non-patriotic if they show any disdain towards the motherland.

But this is bullshit fake news. There is only a very tiny separatist movement in Hong Kong. I don't think most protesters are even separatist. I think many protesters' feelings are inchoate but what they really want is democracy (which is part of the Basic Law [ie: HK's "constitution"] and was part of the Joint Declaration [between UK and PRC]) not because voting is somehow magical, but as a way to call the authorities to account.

As it is today, there is no outlet for that impulse other than protest, and the government has shown that non-violent protest and even civil disobedience will not work, so there is a portion of the protesters who think violent demonstration is the only solution.

And frankly, the mainland has given HK no cause to love it. They are like the creepy dude who insists the girl must love him without doing anything to make himself attractive and keeps octopus-arming her. All that does is push the intended away.

 

[Whippy McGee]

You can really see the cozy relationship between state & corporate censorship here. If the NBA is obviously enforcing the whims of the Chinese government--in exchange for receiving a favorable business climate in the CPRC--what conclusions can we draw about the political censorship exercised by western companies?

Suppose (as a thought experiment) an unnamed Western liberal regime is growing wary of dissent (several recent electoral shocks have challenged prevailing orthodoxy), but the regime's hands are tied by outdated 18th century legal norms about "rights" and so forth. Suppose a small handful of powerful media conglomerates took control of most public communications in that nation. What services might they offer the neoliberal regime in exchange for shelter from antitrust enforcement?

We should ask Google, Facebook, etc... what they receive for becoming Orwellian puppet companies with no morals.

 

[Andy Capp]

Cantonese is dominant in HK. A Mandarin speaker may be perceived (rightly or wrongly) as being a pro China infiltrator. Considering CCP's thugish tactics and attempts to put down any resistance to its fascism, some Hong Kongers get paranoid.

Or disappeared.

You can really see the cozy relationship between state & corporate censorship here. If the NBA is obviously enforcing the whims of the Chinese government--in exchange for receiving a favorable business climate in the CPRC--what conclusions can we draw about the political censorship exercised by western companies?

Suppose (as a thought experiment) an unnamed Western liberal regime is growing wary of dissent (several recent electoral shocks have challenged prevailing orthodoxy), but the regime's hands are tied by outdated 18th century legal norms about "rights" and so forth. Suppose a small handful of powerful media conglomerates took control of most public communications in that nation. What services might they offer the neoliberal regime in exchange for shelter from antitrust enforcement?

Do you see it, Jimmy? Let's take a close look.

Sometimes, when cognitive bias, propaganda, and the the subconscious, merge with trolling, you get complete self delusion. In this example, notice the proposed thought experiment is a precise mirror image of reality, with liberal instead of conservative; the mistaken belief modern neoliberalism has anything to do with being liberal while it has been the religion of American conservatives for coming on 5 decades; the realization that that the regime is already neoliberal given the foregoing, disenfranchising people en masse for partisan gain; calling the press the enemy of the people; the media outlets with the firmest control on their viewers; the POTUS saying publicly he is in favor of side-stepping due process; opposition to the Voting Rights act; the War on Drugs; permanent tax cuts for the rich while the ones for the middle class expire; abuse of the office of attorney general; abuse of process in supreme court nomination, and so on and so on; all are right-wing actions that together fulfill in fact, what supposedly a thought experiment. It's a sad commentary on people in the 21st century, but it is what it is.

But take heart. The next time you see "leftists don't care about rights" or "they constantly cry racist when it's not" and so on, just take the exact opposite to heart. Not only will it be true, it will be what the person really believes deep inside and you should try to have some empathy for their cognitive issues and leave them be. It will take away from them whatever power they think they're trying to hold onto.

@Jack V Savage Anything to add, perchance?

 

[PhitePhan]

wait what? I thought the NBA was on the woke front lines. They love LGBTQ+ and have Spanish heritage months, the jerseys are written in Spanish. So they for people rights or the $$$$ lol

James Harden apologizes as controversy grows: 'We love China'
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/27787634/james-harden-apologizes-controversy-grows-love-china

 

[MicroBrew]

Yes I thought about that too. There were two kids in class from Guangzhou in my high school. While they were definitely on more friendly terms with the Hongers, they still prefer to hang out with the mainland Chinese crowd at the time. The divide extends beyond just linguistic. This protest is polarizing both sides further.


Yep, same case in Vancouver where it drives resenting towards Chinese. I blame the government more for being complicit in the scheme though, since it was benefiting off the arrangement. The municipal government was getting more tax revenues since property tax was based on the price of your house. The provincial government got donors and foreign investments from China. The federal government was making money hand over fist by essentially selling Canadian residence status by promoting "investor immigrant". Chinese played flaws in the system, and nobody bothered to fix the flaws because it was good times.

Same thing with HK, where the government depend on land sales and companies operating in China for general revenue. It's disconnected with the working population. While not quite CCP puppets, it represents the interest of the tycoons who usually lean towards China due to their business ties. Funny that the Heritage Foundation, a Republican thinktank, saw Hong Kong as some sort of free market utopia. The place has been a pressure cooker for years.

You sound pretty knowledgeable about this stuff like you have first hand experience. What's your background? Mine is growing up with Chinese kids in Vancouver and working a few years for a real estate developer when Chinese were buying up condos like hot cakes. I also spent a few months in China in my early 20's in Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Beijing and Shenzhen.

It's mind boggling to watch this unfold. You have a city of people that depends on China for their living necessities (food, water, electricity) as well as business market access. Lot of them see themselves as New York of the East. At the same time, many of them want nothing to do with China, seeing it as backwards and oppressive. They hate seeing mainland Chinese flooding their city. If split personality could be generalized to a group, this is probably what it looks like.​

My info is gleaned from just reading articles on culture, and news like: Reuters, BBC, South China Post etc.. and watching YouTube documentaries and vloggers from Asia describing life in Hong Kong, Japan, China etc...

I had some acquaintances/friends from mainland China when I was in HighSchool (here in the US, in the Pacific NorthWest). They were first generation but spoke decent English.They had been here for many years, but oddly they still claimed Western criticism of the PRC was propaganda.

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

The NBA cancelled their All Star game in North Carolina, just because they wanted males in men's bathrooms and females in women's bathrooms. Gay rights in China? ROFL! Where does the NBA stand on Freedoms, Liberties, Gay Rights, etc. in China? WHERE THE $$$$$ IS. This is pathetic.

Kinda like how the average American supporter of Hong Kong freedom and democracy would be against any of the states being allowed to leave the USA?

 

[jefferz]

Meanwhile over at Blizzard

Blizzard bans Hearthstone pro for Hong Kong protest support
The esports world is finding itself embroiled in a political dispute. Blizzard has banned pro Hearthstone player Ng Wai Chung (aka Blitzchung) for a year after he voiced support for Hong Kong protesters in a post-match interview. The statement allegedly violated rules forbidding players from saying something that "offends a portion or group of the public" or "otherwise damages" Blizzard's image. The developer is also kicking Chung out of the Grandmasters, eliminating his winnings from the tournament and halting work with the casters who conducted the interview despite their attempts to distance themselves from the statement.