[throwaway77643]

In the 1920s, I don’t think any person could have imagined the progress in Civil Rights that would occur in America.

And yet it happened. From racist Jim Crow laws to Gay Rights, the progress made in 100 years is astonishing.

Give the PRC 100 years and who knows how it might change.

[akiselev]

> In the 1920s, I don’t think any person could have imagined the progress in Civil Rights that would occur in America.

No one imagined it in the 1920s because they had already imagined it in the 1860s but got Jim Crow instead.

Those who refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

[AnimalMuppet]

And yet, those who didn't imagine it in the 1920's still got civil rights in the 1960s.

So in your view, what were we supposed to learn from history?

[akiselev]

> So in your view, what were we supposed to learn from history?

The south will burn again

[dogma1138]

Australia had a ban on non-white immigrants till 1955, civil rights weren’t a US only issue.

[ffggvv]

yes because we have democracy, a constitution, and a working court system and free speech.

china has none of that

[peanutz454]

I guess that's exactly what Thatcher thought would happen when she handed over Hong Kong - That China will make progress towards liberalism in politics and economics. Instead of China becoming like the rest of the world, I am wary of the world becoming like China. Progress has been made in the past, but cannot take that for-granted.

[toyg]

Thatcher did not “hand over” anything - the lease of HK would expire in 1997, so the UK government had no legal basis to stick around unless the Chinese allowed them to. Unsurprisingly, a “restored” China, now nuclear, said no. Thatcher failed to persuade them otherwise, despite years of negotiations, and was effectively forced to swallow the handover.