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> western nations hardly place anything over greed and capitalism That is... more or less what the GP said: "we western nations place our greed and capitalism
by colanderman 10y ago
> western nations hardly place anything over greed and capitalism
That is... more or less what the GP said:
"we western nations place our greed and capitalism over our morals"
- coldtea 10y agoTrue, I just wanted to point that those supposed "morals" aren't much to write home about either. How I read the comment: western countries have morals, but they put them aside because of greed and ignore them when China does something bad. The spirit of my answer: what morals? The western countries have done all that and much worse for centuries (not just ignoring morals when a valuable ally does something bad, but actively doing bad themselves). It's not some momentarily lapse of morals that just applies to this particular case.
- freshhawk 10y agoAre we arguing with exceptionalists who are angry at our suggestion that there is no high ground to look down from or just people with poor reading comprehension? I honestly can't tell.
- coldtea 10y agoLet's say that we're compounding on our arguments against exceptionalists.
- colanderman 10y agoI think it is important to distinguish between morals-as-statements and morals-as-actions. All GP is saying is that the actions of the Chinese state, while against western morals (as stated), are permitted by the (in)action of western states. They're not claiming western moral superiority (which would admit such a tu quoque argument as you present), or claiming that western states act morally (which as you point out is demonstrably false). I think you're reading too much into it.