1989 was not mostly college aged kids, it was mostly an ideologically and politically uneducated urban proletariat lashing out at a perceived reduction in material conditions brought about by the introduction of market-oriented economic reforms, with the kids taking the spotlight because they were the only ones who looked like they had ideas (newsflash: they didn't) and also because kids are more photogenic than unemployed middle aged civil servants.

one thing this current batch does have in common with 89 is the recurrent theme of liberals wanting to shoot themselves in the foot and then turning around and blaming the government and communism when it turns out that things have consequences. tbh joker me really wants the government to just rip the fucking bandaid off just to see the inevitable 'who could have done this?' cope blasted all over social media, because the one thing these people are all operating under is the assumption of ITS JUST A FLU BRO and that 'of course there will be only MINIMAL blowback' in the form of elderly family members kicking it but that's ok because they have an overpriced mortgage to pay, the privilege for which they leveraged like 90% of their assets 3x over to get.

chinese urban gentry deserve all the consequences of the capitalism they so desperately want.

public/private partnership bureaucrats get the wall too, it's those fuckers who are too deep in the fucking hole to release some of that real estate blood money for even the slightest bit of direct pandemic relief for the most marginal.