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?!"

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.

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.

"I rarely see negative threads about the US on hackernews,"

You must not be looking, then.

You are clearly not looking then

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.

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.

>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.

> 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).

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.

> 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).

>I don't think that's actually true.

Really?

>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

Yes, but the mud sticks a lot better if it is made of fresh shit. To only regard the people bickering is a mistake. Is the people watching you have to really consider.

> Yes, but the mud sticks a lot better if it is made of fresh shit.

Unfortunately, mud sticks well enough even if it isn't real, so I really don't think that's much of a concern.

>> 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.

Do you think anyone affected or with influence would give greater credence to US "lectures" if it had never invaded anyplace?

I think the USA had a ton of political goodwill after WWII that it has since then burned for money and now has very little left. The USA does have a lot of money and weapons, so people fear it politically, but it no longer commands much respect.

> I think the USA had a ton of political goodwill after WWII that it has since then burned for money and now has very little left.

Maybe so, but it didn't do anything to stop the Berlin Blockade or the invasion of South Korea.