Comments by "peabase" (@peabase) on "Pro-Trump protesters storm US Capitol, halt electoral vote count | DW News" video.

  1. More like a silly banana republic.
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  2. You're disowning your own. Good start!
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  3.  @Polonus7  No, thinking is an antidote for conspiracy theories. You don't want that.
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  4. So what's the conclusion? Both China and the USA have made a mockery of democracy?
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  5.  @zhengqianyu7913  You wouldn't know freedom even if it bit you in the butt.
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  6.  @zhengqianyu7913  It isn't my idea of freedom -- didn't I make that clear in my initial reply? You're not very observant.
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  7.  @zhengqianyu7913  Like I suggested earlier, your understanding of freedom is very rudimentary. To you, freedom is lack of control, and control is what your autocrats need above anything else. Just for the record, disrupting a crucial vote is not freedom. It's the exact opposite. But I suppose you don't know about voting either...
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  8.  @zhengqianyu7913  Like I keep repeating, the associations with freedom are completely lost on you. There's no defence for riots. They're excesses that only serve to harm whatever cause is at stake. However, they're still just that, excesses. In Hong Kong's case, the wider context was a popular demand for full democracy, while in the US, the context can only be described as anti-democratic -- Trump's and his most ardent supporters' refusal to accept the result of a free and fair election. The riots are over, but China still has millions of pro-democracy supporters to contend with in Hong Kong, and the US has to restore faith in its democratic institutions among Trump-voters that still cling to conspiracy theories. Both are real concerns that need addressing. It very much looks like you can't see the forest for the trees. Politically astute you're not.
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  9.  @zhengqianyu7913  You still don't have a clue about freedom. In neither case did the rioting have anything to do with freedom. Even Trump admits that now. How would you know that 1.4 billion people in China are opposed to democracy? Has there been a referendum on the matter? And why should the Hongkongers be saddled with mainland China's backwardness in terms of democratic awareness? It's supposed to be one country, two systems. The truth of the matter is that the CCP can't allow democracy in Hong Kong, because it would constitute a dangerous precedent. Soon, calls for democracy would be heard all over China, and that would spell the end of the CCP's autocracy.
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  10.  @zhengqianyu7913  I wrote that you don't know what the 1.4 billion Chinese think about democracy. Don't try to turn it around -- I've never claimed that I know either. Actually, as the spouse of a SAR passport holder, I'm keenly aware of "one country, two systems". I even listened in person to Chris Patten lauding the arrangement. Were you even born then? No matter how hard you try, the riots don't delegitimize Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement. The popular discontent with Beijing's anti-democratic rule will not go away. The USA is classified as a flawed democracy on account of the diminishing trust of its electorate in democratic institutions. Their chaotic voting arrangements and antiquated electoral college certainly don't help matters, but by all accounts this election was free and fair. I wonder what you know about democracy, since you clearly haven't lived it.
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  11.  @zhengqianyu7913  Democracy is a universal value. It's a developmental stage -- a stage that China hasn't reached yet. Take South Korea -- it was authoritarian, but as the country grew more affluent, the people started to demand democracy. They made sure to get it, too. Why should China be radically different? You're only making excuses and not providing alternatives. Democracy doesn't guarantee good governance, but it does guarantee representation. We'd be up in arms if we were denied representation.
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  12.  @zhengqianyu7913  Is that a CCP-endorsed speaking point, that democracies are all former colonial masters? If you had a better grasp of world history, you'd know that some of the best-in-class democracies endured colonial rule themselves at some point in time. You're just spouting propagandistic clichés.
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  13.  @zhengqianyu7913  New Zealand, Finland, Ireland, Canada, Australia -- and that's just from the top 10 of the Democracy Index. Why should I define democracy for you? It's not a matter of opinion. It's Politics 101. Educate yourself. Like I've been saying all along, you don't even understand the basics of democracy and you clearly struggle with world history, too. What did they teach you in school? Marxism?
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  14.  @zhengqianyu7913  And now, the definition of "colony" eludes you. In history class, did they only teach you Marxist history? Declare my democracy? I hope that in Mandarin that makes sense on some obscure level, because it sure doesn't in English.
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  15.  @zhengqianyu7913  What, you can't look up the definitions of "democracy" and "colony" yourself? Should I mix some formula and feed it to you from a baby bottle, too?
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  16. ​ @zhengqianyu7913  No, there's nothing new for me to learn from you, to whom even basic concepts are new.
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  17.  @zhengqianyu7913  It's good that you're finally starting to find out things for yourself. Long overdue, that. Please do block yourself.
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