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Comment by NotSammyHagar | Hacker News Reader

Saying that Britain is the lesser of two evils is vastly under-representing the difference. Did the British kidnap people in the night, take them prisons, and torture them until they publicly admit their crimes? Did they harvest organs from prisoners?

They didn't attempt to make slaves of the Hong Kong people to the state.

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I think there's an important, main point in OP's comment that you are missing.

Hong Kong has never really had much democratic process, in terms of direct elections, and universal suffrage. There are only some roles where this happens.

Hong Kong has a long history of protesting this, and of failed attempts of implementing more democratic process.

To say it was democratic under British rule is a reach.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_development_in_Ho...

I never got why people confused democracy with open elections. Open elections are the literal opposite of democracy since it allows people with no understanding to vote.

> the literal opposite of democracy since it allows people with no understanding to vote.

I would need to know the definition of democracy you're using to fully appreciate the meaning of this comment.

Its etymology is: "the people's rule". Its definition is: "a system of government by the whole population".

I think it's pretty fundamental for democracy that as a member of society you have equal power to govern yourself as everyone else does.

What you describe is an Oligarchy. Specifically it seems close to a Geniocracy, Meritocracy, Noocracy or Technocracy. Those are all forms of Oligarchy, where only the "smart", "deserving", "wise", and "experts" get to rule.

I feel you on this Angeo34 -- even the ancient Greeks guarded citizenship and the right to vote very closely, I'd venture closed democracy is the only democracy

And I totally understand the irony of what you're saying -- the downvotes only serve to show you have a point

Kudos to the CBC for still publishing these sorts of power-to-the-people style pieces

I get your point that it wasn't a true or complete democracy in a very real sense. Only the British people got to influence (through national elections in Britain) what was happening there. Russia is a theoretical democracy because you get to vote for Putin or some random non-threatening person. But it's pretty different than living in HK under British rule.

In general i love the false equivalence the misinformed/legitimately dense/chinese trolls are making.

Like, the whole "NSA bad so china is good" argument. Are they for real?

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