Why when the US is being called out on anything (torture, limiting free speech, illegal searches, no paid holidays, shitty minimum wage ... the list goes on) pe

Why when the US is being called out on anything (torture, limiting free speech, illegal searches, no paid holidays, shitty minimum wage ... the list goes on) people immediately try to compare the US to nations where the situation is much worse. (China, North Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, and others). Not only is it annoying, it doesn't add anything to the conversation. Yes, China doesn't have free speech, and they may have a totalitarian government, do you really want to compare the US to them like the US is somehow doing better? Shouldn't the US be holding itself up as the poster child for how it should be done? Aren't the rights granted by the constitution something that should be upheld as something other countries in the world should take note of and follow? Oh look the US is torturing prisoners of war, well China is too so it isn't all bad, is it? Oh look the US is wiretapping all of its citizens and with a heavy hand censoring the Internet as it sees fit (domain seizures) ... Well at least we don't have to deal with the Great Firewall like China. How about the US once again shows how it is done... you know, stop the illegal wiretapping, set proper minimum wage so that people can live off it, get a proper healthcare system, increase funding to schools and scientific research, stop the needless wars, uphold the citizens rights to free speech, disallow the police force to take money from private corporations, don't make the police jackbooted thugs, instead make them people who are there to protect the people, not someone we need protection from. Let the US once again thrive, so that in the future it can become a comparison with "Does France have X", "Does Sweden have Y".