What Bitcoiners Can Learn From Hong Kongers — Lesson Two
Why it’s Ok for the Cyber Hornets to attack other Bitcoiners.
If you know anything about the deteriorating political situation in Hong Kong you might know who the guy on the right is…
Yes, Joshua Wong is the international face of Hong Kong’s protest movement. He has undoubtedly spear-headed significant campaigns and protest actions that have fundamentally changed Hong Kong’s political landscape, and yet, a large proportion of the protest movement at best would not listen to him, or at worst, don’t like him.
Wong rose to prominence prior to the 2014 Occupy Protests and almost became the de-facto leader of the movement during that time. But just like Bitcoin, the protest movement naturally developed its own auto-immune system led by a small, but vociferous group of protesters and keyboard warriors, who wanted direct actions over words, results over platitudes.
The hotbed for this energy explosion was a forum known as HKGolden. On this forum, just like the world of the Bitcoin Cyber Hornets today, no topic or person was off limits. The toxic attackers, later to be known as Localists, were despised by centrist Hong Kongers who saw them as too partisan, aggressive and suggested they were bad for the greater protest movement.
Nearing the end of the Occupy Street Protests in 2014, a call to action by the HKGolden forum to “Storm the Main Stage” sent ripples of panic through the entire protest movement. It was essentially a mini pleb rebellion. I joined that action, and it was a water shed moment. In the showdown, the coalescense of power and control forming around Joshua Wong and the Pan-Democratic politicians was broken. From that moment on, no one could control or spoke authoritatively for the protest movement. Hong Kong’s version of the Cyber Hornets were fully released. Many bemoaned that the movement had become too factional and toxic to achieve anything worthwhile, and the toxicity detracted from the purity of the ultimate goal, democracy.
Just like in the Bitcoin Twitterverse today, the weapon’s of the Localists were memes, satire, sharp wit and relentless timing. No one was off limits. Everyone lived and died by how their words and actions would be interpreted by the waiting cyber army.
After 2014, the protest movement only had unity in its greater cause for democracy, and zero unity in how this could be achieved.
At that time, Hong Kong’s cyberspace was the most connected in the world, and resembled a gladiator’s arena. A Darwinian, cyber battleground where only strongest survived. Potential ideas and thought leaders were slain without mercy with memes and sharp wit. It was a brutal and highly stimulating atmosphere to be in. The ‘toxicity’ ensured that the movement continued to grow horizontally, not vertically, see Lesson One.
By 2019, and the explosion of a new protest movement, the entire population had morphed into a self-autonomous army of resistance. Hundreds of thousands of people could be mobilised with almost zero centralised direction from a single leader or group. Police struggled to contain the movement as no single entity controlled the message or directed protests. The supposedly toxic cyber environment of the passed years had in fact kept the movement sharp, lean, and essentially leaderless. People had learnt to think for themselves, and not accept false leaders or shallow, immoral actors. For years, the toxicity of the space had acted like a weed killer.
With no hierarchal leaders or command structures, the protest scene had become like water, fluid and anti-fragile.
Having lived through decades of Hong Kong protests and now immersing myself in the Bitcoin movement it is easy to see the parallels. Cries that the Cyber Hornets have now become an auto-immune disease, attacking the host, are misplaced, usually made from people who have never been involved in a real movement for change.
Just like the Localists in Hong Kong, the Cyber Hornets maintain the critical health of the community, but a common falicy is that they are here to defend Bitcoin.
Bitcoin doesn’t need protecting.
Instead, and just like in Hong Kong, one of the prime responsibilities is to defend the Movement. To stop it being co-opted by grifters, especially those who’d rise from within.
Read more articles
What Bitcoiners can learn from Hong Kongers, Lesson One
Richard Scotford Bio — Richard is an independent journalist and writer who has covered many of Hong Kong’s protests. He lived in Hong Kong for 22 years. His new mission is to prevent Hong Kongers being trapped by the Digital Yuan by spreading the Pleb world view.
