[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.