Spoke to some of the leading experts on authoritarian regimes and the way they communicate, including @LMorgenbesser @MariaRepnikova "These outlandish claims, conspiracy theories, contradictory information and downright lies" -- it is textbook https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/hong-kong-police-yuen-long-attack-national-security-law-arrests/2020/08/27/370d8490-e787-11ea-bf44-0d31c85838a5_story.html

With the Chris Tang news conference today -- adding more layers of word salad, correcting the record of yesterday's record, corrected from the same record a year ago -- "The goal is confusion," says @LMorgenbesser "Confusion so citizens can't organize themselves" around an issue

And sometimes, argues @haifeng_huang in this paper, the goal is simply the propaganda itself -- not because it can brainwash, but as a signal of how strong the state is, how powerful and how infallible https://www.jstor.org/stable/43664158#metadata_info_tab_contents

Right now, the mixed messaging of the past days has backfired on the Hong Kong police in the eyes of many, who appear not to be able to keep the story straight on the most consequential event of last year, the incident that truly tanked their credibility https://www.hkupop.hku.hk/pori_table_chart/DisciplinaryForces/rating/police_rating/X001_rating_halfyr_chart.html

But, as the state gets more sophisticated, and information flow is more complete, and more limitations are placed on the media, this will get easier and easier to pull off. Today, @aaronMCN, one of the most dogged chroniclers of last year's protests, was denied a HK visa.