I didn't at all intend to justify or excuse anything the Saudi Arabian government has done. Not uniquely despicable isn't a good look. I did worry that people n

I didn't at all intend to justify or excuse anything the Saudi Arabian government has done. Not uniquely despicable isn't a good look. I did worry that people not familiar with the issues who read the comment I replied to would come away with the impression that for a totalitarian country to torture is unusual. It's completely valid to say "lots of countries torture, and let's focus on Saudi Arabia because they get a lot of US support so we as US citizens have more leverage over them than most countries". It's also completely valid to say "let's focus on Saudia Arabia because they're on the worse end and we need to start somewhere". I wouldn't have left my comment there was a large discussion about Saudi abuses; I thought the comment was useful because it was in reply to a single offhand looking comment.