Now here is a more intellectually interesting question to me, and somewhat a reaction to our western media reporting interviewing mostly the young and the liberal who want to leave HK:
What do you do, or how should you feel/react/believe if a people actually want the tradeoffs of more authoritarianism in exchange for more security/economic stability/etc? Whether they make that choice informed or not so well-informed, is that an illegitimate choice, always bad?
I have the feeling that media bias is to side with the most visible and sympathetic example stories, which are people who oppose China in this case. What about the many, many segments of the population which don't care about the change, or actively support it? There is quite a bias, you must admit, in the media, that "China's encroachment/takeover/etc is objectively bad" -- which to me sometimes comes off as not having done much homework why that's true, or why it's so obvious.
In regards to your question - I think of it this way. In what order do you prioritize your identities; yourself, your family, social circles, those who seem to share your identity, the state or its populus, and then the world? Plenty of people prioritize one above all else, and for many that is the state.
In regards to media bias, at least in the US, the nielson ratings among others are monitored vigorously, often given to anchors during commercial breaks. Content is filtered through a, or multiple people's worldview(s), but ratings rule for all but the most ideological. The juggling of entertainment and news will never go away, I think - people don't listen to the newswires like AP or reuters for fun do they?
>What do you do, or how should you feel/react/believe if a people actually want the tradeoffs of more authoritarianism in exchange for more security/economic stability/etc?
There is no tradeoff, they are the same thing. Freedom from rent seeking results in both security and economic stability and is anti authoritarian.
What do you do, or how should you feel/react/believe if a people actually want the tradeoffs of more authoritarianism in exchange for more security/economic stability/etc? Whether they make that choice informed or not so well-informed, is that an illegitimate choice, always bad?
I have the feeling that media bias is to side with the most visible and sympathetic example stories, which are people who oppose China in this case. What about the many, many segments of the population which don't care about the change, or actively support it? There is quite a bias, you must admit, in the media, that "China's encroachment/takeover/etc is objectively bad" -- which to me sometimes comes off as not having done much homework why that's true, or why it's so obvious.