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That the US does bad things does not invalidate the bad things China and Russia do. You sound like someone who gets a speeding ticket and answers "but everyone

by sgift 7y ago

That the US does bad things does not invalidate the bad things China and Russia do. You sound like someone who gets a speeding ticket and answers "but everyone else is speeding too! Why do you punish me?!"

lm28469 7y ago
I rarely see negative threads about the US on hackernews, but not a day goes by without the regular anti chinese/russian propaganda, especially concerning military and/or technology.
- jerf 7y ago
  "I rarely see negative threads about the US on hackernews," You must not be looking, then.
- 0_gravitas 7y ago
  You are clearly not looking then
- hombre_fatal 7y ago
  Thanks for the chuckle, but shitting on the USA is one of our favorite passtimes on HN as Americans, so it kinda makes your "b-b-but what about the USA" here into a trite eye-roll. It's like complaining HN never talks shit about Javascript in a submission that shits on PHP.
- wDcBKgt66V8WDs 7y ago
  I see plenty... often times it's more corporate focused but frequently it's about how those corporations interact with the government/society in ways that implicate government/society as well.
dsfyu404ed 7y ago
It's actually a better excuse for traffic violations than for international politics. What the rules of the road specifically don't matter all that much so long as everyone is behaving predictably so doing what everyone else does is generally the best option even if it's not the letter of the law.
inflatableDodo 7y ago
>That the US does bad things does not invalidate the bad things China and Russia do. True, but whataboutism like that only carries any weight at all because the US has been the most warlike nation since WWII.
- CharlesColeman 7y ago
  > True, but whataboutism like that only carries any weight at all because the US has been the most warlike nation since WWII. Not really. Russia was de facto involved in many of those conflicts (e.g. supplying fighters and pilots to North Korea during the Korean war to fight the UN), and had many of its own (e.g. the invasions of Hungary and Czechoslovakia, to name a few).
  - inflatableDodo 7y ago
    I'm not defending Russia, or whataboutism. Is the international politics version of, 'yeah, but what are you'. All I am pointing out is that the US government would carry greater moral weight when lecturing others if it didn't keep invading places and propping up dictators. Also, the overall problems we are dealing with as humans are systemic and not specific to one country, so if trying to solve them, pointing fingers at others just does not really help. The current situation with Trump, for instance, is an interesting reflection of the installation of Yeltsin.
    - CharlesColeman 7y ago
      > All I am pointing out is that the US government would carry greater moral weight when lecturing others if it didn't keep invading places and propping up dictators. I don't think that's actually true. If you're of the mind that you're going to find fault in the messenger to ignore/distract from the message, you're going to find some fault regardless of how well the messenger behaves (and the fault you choose does not have to be related to the topic at hand).
      - inflatableDodo 7y ago

by sgift 7y ago

lm28469 7y ago

I rarely see negative threads about the US on hackernews, but not a day goes by without the regular anti chinese/russian propaganda, especially concerning military and/or technology.

jerf 7y ago
"I rarely see negative threads about the US on hackernews," You must not be looking, then.
0_gravitas 7y ago
You are clearly not looking then
hombre_fatal 7y ago
Thanks for the chuckle, but shitting on the USA is one of our favorite passtimes on HN as Americans, so it kinda makes your "b-b-but what about the USA" here into a trite eye-roll. It's like complaining HN never talks shit about Javascript in a submission that shits on PHP.
wDcBKgt66V8WDs 7y ago
I see plenty... often times it's more corporate focused but frequently it's about how those corporations interact with the government/society in ways that implicate government/society as well.

dsfyu404ed 7y ago

It's actually a better excuse for traffic violations than for international politics. What the rules of the road specifically don't matter all that much so long as everyone is behaving predictably so doing what everyone else does is generally the best option even if it's not the letter of the law.

inflatableDodo 7y ago

>That the US does bad things does not invalidate the bad things China and Russia do. True, but whataboutism like that only carries any weight at all because the US has been the most warlike nation since WWII.

CharlesColeman 7y ago
> True, but whataboutism like that only carries any weight at all because the US has been the most warlike nation since WWII. Not really. Russia was de facto involved in many of those conflicts (e.g. supplying fighters and pilots to North Korea during the Korean war to fight the UN), and had many of its own (e.g. the invasions of Hungary and Czechoslovakia, to name a few).
- inflatableDodo 7y ago
  I'm not defending Russia, or whataboutism. Is the international politics version of, 'yeah, but what are you'. All I am pointing out is that the US government would carry greater moral weight when lecturing others if it didn't keep invading places and propping up dictators. Also, the overall problems we are dealing with as humans are systemic and not specific to one country, so if trying to solve them, pointing fingers at others just does not really help. The current situation with Trump, for instance, is an interesting reflection of the installation of Yeltsin.
  - CharlesColeman 7y ago
    > All I am pointing out is that the US government would carry greater moral weight when lecturing others if it didn't keep invading places and propping up dictators. I don't think that's actually true. If you're of the mind that you're going to find fault in the messenger to ignore/distract from the message, you're going to find some fault regardless of how well the messenger behaves (and the fault you choose does not have to be related to the topic at hand).
    - inflatableDodo 7y ago