Comments by "Alan Friesen" (@alanfriesen9837) on "Protest PR: the creative team behind Hong Kong’s anti-government demonstrations" video.

The girl's injured eye is admittedly tragic and I hope she's recovering and I hope that permanent damage can eventually be healed (last I heard she lost the eye). Nonetheless, from my vantage point in the United States it looks like the struggle between the police and the protesters has been remarkably light on casualties considering both the numbers involved and the duration of protests. I think the protests are beginning to lose the overall support of the world's people. There's less coverage now than there has been and I think more people are seeing tear gas and dyed water compared to thrown bricks and home-made incendiaries and thinking that the protesters represent the more violent group. I think more people are sympathizing with the police force than before as they think of the tedium annoyance faced by the police. The fact that the police are Hong Kong police rather than PRC police or soldiers makes a lot of people view them as less villainous. Also, comparing the anti-China protesters to the pro-China protesters, one sees a distinct age difference. The anti-China protesters are masked and dressed in black like paramilitaries while the pro-China crowd looks like it's made up of middle-class office workers. Optics are definitely swinging away from the youth movement.
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@Dididong11 For a lot of people the masks are troubling. It comes off as cowardly: willing to upset the apple cart but unwilling to pay the price for doing so. If there's more meaning to it please let me know.
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@Dididong11 I understand why they wear the masks. Part of a successful civil disobedience action is facing consequences defiantly. By wearing the masks the protesters are signifying that they don't care enough about their issue to advocate openly. I don't think I would necessarily be braver than they are, but when you compare them to the marchers at Selma or the followers of Ghandi these kids look, rightly or wrongly, both more thuggish and less ideologically committed.
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