[masterof0]

When you point out hypocrisy in HN, you will get downvoted and comments on how you are using "whataboutism". Most of the traffic to this website comes from the US, so you probably understand the clear bias. You will also see how people love to bring(rightfully so) Hong Kong crackdowns on protesters but willingly ignore what is going on in other countries (and have been going for longer) like Venezuela, Cuba, etc... Is just how it is.

[whycombinatore]

More than half of the countries in existence are poor places to live. Generally if conditions deteriorate in a country it attracts attention - so in Hong Kong people clearly lost rights which they had because of CCP policies. Its not that people willingly ignore Cuba - its more to do with reaction to change which is perceived as negative.

[verall]

Hong Kong is an extremely international and technically advanced city that freely accepts American passports for visits. Many on HN bring up the HK crackdowns because they have personal experiences with the city.

Its unlikely that on a majority-American forum you will find many people with personal experiences in countries that the USA has put under embargo.

[masterof0]

So, countries under embargo are doomed to apathy and disregard from the American public? Their people suffering can be safely ignored , just because their country is not "international"(whatever this means) or "technically advanced" enough? Your comment shows the sentiment I was describing. Is never about being fair, or about freedom, etc.. Is just about what can I say to make people like my comment. But anyways, I get your point, is just sad.

[quetzthecoatl]

It's "people like us". Always been. What's changed is how the "people like us" is defined. It used to be race, then skin color, then religious belief, and now it's class. It's still us vs them, only "us" is not defined on racial or religious lines.

[whycombinatore]

Strongly disagree. I am not an American, but I am aware about Hong Kong, but know nothing about, say, Burkina Faso. The reason is pretty simple - HK is going downhill (from my perspective) while there isn't much of a change in Burkina Faso, although I would rather be in HK than Burkina Faso. In other words we react to what we see as "negative change" from our own perspective.

[verall]

> just because their country is not "international"(whatever this means) or "technically advanced" enough

I think you're misunderstanding me - it is much more likely, due to those qualities, that people on a majority American forum have personally lived in or met people from Hong Kong. An embargo heavily reduces the ability for Americans to visit or meet people people from that country. This obviously makes those people "feel" further away.

This reduction in cultural exchange between America and communist countries is a key goal of the embargo. Between propaganda and the embargo, the average American public has no chance of realistically meeting, visiting, or understanding these people and places.

[quetzthecoatl]

that and they really are unaware of the horrible things their government/country did and still does. In my view, every good thing/ideal has been corrupted and weaponized by the west. Be it women's rights, civil liberties, human rights in general - whatever. West uses this as a means to pressure other countries to achieve west's foreign policy goals. It's just a stick to beat others with - not an ideal to uphold. So, what you have is a few in the west setting the narrative, and the rest mindlessly dancing as per the narrative believing it. What you see in HN/Reddit etc are the people who believe the propaganda as they being the good guys despite the ones doing the horrible things all across the planet for the last few hundred years. It's hypocrisy when the ones setting the narrative peddle this nonsense. I don't think that crowd comes to HN/Reddit. They are more in nytimes/wapo/economist opeds and columns. The ones you find here are genuinely clueless and/or can't think for themselves. As punishing wrongthink becomes the norm, it's going to get worse.