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Comment by skrebbel | Hacker News Reader

This is ridiculous nonsense.

Eg the entire European concept of "social democracy" came about through unions doing non-violent strikes in the early 20th century. Sure, there was some violence here and there but no armed insurgency. They tried it armed in Eastern Europe and look where that got them.

I know less about American history but it is my understanding that equal rights for people of colour, various sexual preferences etc all came about through non-violent protest (not the abolishment of slavery, obviously, but I mean after that).

Comments like yours share the shit out of me. "oh, well, many thousands will have to die ¯\_(ツ)_/¯"

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>unions doing non-violent strikes in the early 20th century

My aunt's father (in the US) had the duty of keeping the stockpile of firearms hidden to quickly hand back out to all the union members if the Pinkertons tried to start killing people. In the mid 1900s.

Hurray for labor day

But since the CCP will not respect their autonomy, they need to fight for it.

Plenty of examples of European nations who had to fight violently for their autonomy in the recent two centuries.

Were any of them against an adversary as large, heavily armed, and motivated as the CCP?

Yes, one example would be the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire. The Greeks had no chance until they got help from the French, Russian and British empires though.

I hope it doesn’t turn violent, and even if it doesn’t I think the West can offer good help to stave off the influence of communist dictatorship in Hong Kong.

This is especially true of Hong Kong where the authoritian goverment is foreign, enormous, next door, and highly motivated to keep Hong Kong from leaving.

Hong Kong would be a bloodbath, and even then I don't know if China would let them be free.

If people of color or those with non-mainstream sexual preferences wanted independence then they would likely have to wage armed conflict to get it. Asking for equal rights is something that can be done through the democratic system. Asking for liberation from an authoritarian government is quite a bit different in estimate.

Workers rights like striking (while still very violent in many cases) is not an apples-to-apples comparison to liberating yourself from an authoritarian regime. The Balkans illustrate this well if you want recent European history.

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