I saw an article at the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Hong Kong protesters should wave dollar bills, not U.S. flag, so NBA, Trump will pay attention

The hundreds of thousands of protesters who’ve flooded the streets of Hong Kong these last four months are righteous, incredibly heroic and — I’m starting to think — also a little bit naive. They’re the ones (at least some of them … the politics are quite complicated) waving U.S. flags into the neon night and claim that they’re fighting for the same values as America’s Founders — things like justice and the freedom to assemble and to speak freely.

Now we know that if the brave citizens of Hong Kong really wanted America’s politicians and titans of capitalism to intervene on their side, they should have been waving giant dollar bills for the camera, and telling any reporter who’ll listen that what they’re really fighting for is the right to consume, to spend freely on Starbucks’ latte and Apple’s iPhone 11 just like Thomas Jefferson wrote it up in the Declaration of Independence.

Yes, the money is part of it, but after yesterday’s news and Miguel’s early post, I think there is something deeper here.

Miguel’s post about political arrogance reminded me just how absolutely prescient George Orwell was in his writing.

It is a quote from 1984 that I have used frequently on this blog because it is very true:

There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But always — do not forget this, Winston — always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever.

This is a quote from China’s President Xi Jinping:

“Anyone who attempts to split any region from China will perish, with their bodies smashed and bones ground to powder.”

Remember that the protesters in Hong Kong were waving American Flags and singing our National Anthem in symbolic support of freedom and the hope that America will help them.

Now think about all the times we have seen these wealthy, celebrity elites disparage Middle America with utter contempt.

LeBron James is over $450 Million.  How much will China censoring the NBA hurt him financially?  Will he lose his house and his fleet of cars?

Probably not.

I believe that the support of the Chinese government over Hong Kong by some Americans is to vicariously experience the pleasure that Orwell described, of being the boot stamping in another person’s face.

They can’t (yet) smash the bodies of patriotic Americans, so they will satisfy themselves by aligning with the people smashing the bodies of protesters waving American Flags.