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> I'm not defending China, I'm just saying many countries do terrible things - also democratic ones (sometimes it's the goverment, sometimes it's the people).
by nothrabannosir 7y ago
> I'm not defending China, I'm just saying many countries do terrible things - also democratic ones (sometimes it's the goverment, sometimes it's the people).
Great, then you can write a blog post about that and post it to HN and we’ll discuss those atrocities on that post.
Meanwhile let’s stay on topic here, and discuss an article written by a HK citizen to Chinese citizens about China.
This is whataboutism, a classic conversational anti pattern that rears its head every single time China comes up on HN. It’s time to stop.
- askmike 7y agoOn topic: He wants a different political system (democratic) and his arguments are that the current one did many bad things. My point is that changing the political system doesn't change the bad things he's talking about. As we can clearly see in many democratic systems in the world. I don't think I'll write a blogpost. Given the initial responses of my current comments I am sure it would get downvoted anyway.
- vnorilo 7y agoThank you for making a level argument. I think freedom of speech and press helps to bring abuses to daylight and rule of law is essential in reining them in. I believe both are more robust (but, not nearly perfect) in western democracies, and are included in this desire for reform.
- askmike 7y ago> I think freedom of speech and press helps to bring abuses to daylight and rule of law is essential in reining them in. I agree that they can be important, but they don't always solve many problems. Sometimes they even create problems: for example all the "fake news" and entities abusing social media platforms to manipulate elections.