The US/western neoliberals put $trillions into advancing their interests around the world. The 'mainstream' media mostly ignores this fact - instead, it is a vehicle for it. We humans have proven ourselves time and again to be highly susceptible to manipulation via propaganda. See all the colour revolutions. See how loved Obama is despite his appalling record. See how loved Trump is by many. See how so many were fooled into thinking Saddam Hussain was in league with al Qaeda. See how the French have gone from seeing the Soviet Union as responsible for winning WW2, to seeing the US as responsible. See how people were manipulated into believing that it was necessary for the US to drop nuclear bombs on Japan (it wasn't). Etc etc etc. We've been manipulated into supporting elite agendas since the inception of the press.
It is vital to recognise this when trying to figure out what’s going on in the world. We’re naturally trusting, and that is taken advantage of by a media that is essentially a PR machine for western capitalists.
Hong Kong Protests
Protestors in Hong Kong, whose lives are being screwed by neoliberalism - just like everyone else living under the ideology around the world - have been enthusiastically accepting help from the most extreme neoliberal monsters in the world, like Donald Trump, John Bolton and Marco Rubio.
Isn't this mental?
The people of Hong Kong have legitimate grievances and a right to protest, obviously. But to what extent is this protest movement, or at least - the direction it has taken - a result of US/capitalist backing and manipulation? Who knows exactly; It just seems very odd to me that the protestors seem to largely be focusing on opposing China, when surely they should be focusing on opposing neoliberal capitalism at least as much - instead they actively seek help from extreme neoliberals in the US!
And it also seems odd to me that it was the extradition bill that sparked the protests. This bill (now scrapped thanks to the protests) was to target corrupt criminals. Hong Kong is a corrupt, neoliberal playground. Are the protestors eager for criminality to continue? I thought they were pro-law and order/democracy? I know that the argument is that the bill was just symbolic of China encroachment, but still, it seems like an odd thing to have sparked a pro-democracy protest.
Western Liberals Equally Irrational
Thanks to the media coverage that the Hong Kong protests have recieved, western liberals are loudly cheering it on. These westerners, who show little interest in protesting authoritarianism/neoliberalism at home, suddenly support Trump-backed, violent protests abroad. Meanwhile, they mostly ignore all other protest movements around the world that are against US-puppet/neoliberal regimes.
And of course, they ignore western imperialism in general. Where is their loud opposition at current US coup attempts and murderous sanctions against democratic socialist Venezuela? Where was their opposition to the US sending $billions of support to an insurgency in Syria that they knew was dominated by jihadists, resulting in 500,000+ deaths? Where is their loud opposition to western support of Saudi Arabia and their genocidal war on Yemen? Etc.
And where is their support for persecuted and imprisoned journalist, Julian Assange, whose groundbreaking journalistic work has been trying to put an end to the above atrocities?
It seems that the capitalist, pro-US Empire media still has too many people under the thumb.
The Bigger Picture
Whatever your thoughts regarding the Hong Kong protests, it is essential that we oppose meddling by the US Empire. The US/neoliberal agenda for global domination in pursuit of power and profit has already done untold damage, and their targeting of China (and Russia) could literally lead to nuclear war. Hong Kong is another front line in that agenda. I do empathise with Hong Kongers who've been westernized following 150 years of colonization, and who now fear future integration. But for the sake of the planet, we must oppose US imperialism, and support transition to a multi-polar world order.
In my opinion, the only sensible solution to this situation, is for western countries to offer full citizenship to Hong Kongers who oppose the reintegration, so they can flee and resettle in the US, UK, etc, if they wish.
Neoliberalism is Authoritarian Too
China's system may be a one-party state, but the neoliberal capitalist system that they have in Hong Kong and that the US imposes on the world is also extremely anti-democratic. It disempowers the people and empowers a few elites/corporations who care mostly about short term profit, and who corrupt our governments, and dominate over every aspect of our lives. It’s unbelievably harmful, to humanity and the planet. And as evidenced here, Hong Kong is very much an authoritarian client of the US. From what I’ve seen, the protesters in Hong Kong are worryingly oblivious to the neoliberal system that’s screwing them. They wouldn’t be seeking help from the most extreme neoliberals in the world if they were. Maybe that’s just a minority and most of the protestors are protesting the system? I can’t really tell for sure, (though this is disturbing). I *can* tell that the west, as has happened so many times before, is fueling/attempting to co-opt the movement for their own ends - to ensure neoliberalism remains. And god knows to what lengths they’re going to exactly. Maybe we’ll find out in 50 years time when CIA secrets are revealed? It seems clear that the US wants to provoke a violent response from China in order to escalate tensions and justify aggression. This is standard US imperial practice; it is nothing new.
Whilst not a 'liberal demoracy', China’s economic system has lifted nearly a billion people out of poverty in an amazingly short period of time. They achieved this by maintaining a huge amount of state ownership and central planning. Meanwhile, in neoliberal USA, real wages are at 1970s levels, 1 in 5 children in poverty, half a million are homeless, 80% are living pay-check to pay-check, life expectancy is declining, there's drug and suicide epidemics, and every US government continues to wage murderous and ecocidal multi-$billion wars, and economic sanctions, on much of the world. All whilst the rich get richer. China has created a middle class whilst the US has decimated theirs. China has focussed on fighting poverty, investing in renewable energy and in green transport, in reforesting, and in building infrastructure, whilst the US has focussed on waging expensive, destructive and murderous oil wars etc. This is free market capitalism vs state-managed capitalism (or ‘socialism with Chinese characteristics’ as China calls it).
I am not trying to argue in favor of China's overall system - I hate the authoritarianism (although name a country that wasn't authoritarian, when developing? At least China isn't developing by colonizing and plundering the world! And their paranoia is hardly surprising, given the history of western colonialism in China).
But the corporate tyranny that comes from neoliberalism is also a kind of authoritarianism. And China's state-planned economic system is evidently far superior to the west's unbelievably destructive neoliberal economic system, in reducing poverty and improving standard of living. Hong Kong protestors need to realise that the neoliberal west is not their friend. Their problems, in terms of poverty, inability to buy a home, living in debt, etc, will not be helped by working with those who espouse and impose the ideology that causes all of those problems.
And westerners need to wise up to neoliberal imperialism, and the media that promotes it, FAST. The future is bleak if this doesn't happen.
(Link to my thread on twitter about the protests - here).
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