europeanperson

What's wrong with reminding people (who are probably from the US) that their government is worse? The whataboutism that I see most on Hacker News is Americans complaining about the Chinese government, while their own country has a horrible record when it comes to human rights (Iraq War) and democracy (regime changes organised by the CIA).

This is not a game of chance. Hundreds of thousands of people have died. Let's base our principles based on what actually happens. I think it's ridiculous to give the U.S. a pass because the killing might stop in a few decades.

I agree that the U.S. is way more democratic than China. My argument is that the wars that the U.S. has started have been way more damaging to the world and, as a consequence, moral objections to doing business with China without having those same objections when doing business with the U.S. just seems hypocritical to me.

A horrible act, but I don't see how it is worse than the war in Iraq.

It is if you apply it to China and not to the U.S.

I agree.

You got me there. It's just that almost all of the current comments talk about how YC shouldn't do business in China, while they're already doing business in the U.S. I just don't see how it is worse, when the U.S. has a far more violent recent past.

If they were against doing business in countries that have "done horrendous humanitarian crimes", they wouldn't have done business in the U.S.

I assume that most of the people that commented on this article live in the U.S. The majority of the world sees the U.S. as the world's biggest threat to world peace, yet I don't see anybody on Hacker News claiming companies shouldn't do business with the U.S. Since the war in Iraq, can we think of something that the Chinese government has done that is worse? I disagree strongly with the notion that the Chinese government's influence on the world is somehow worse than the influence of the U.S. I do think there is something to be said about boycotting governments that abuse human rights, but I think it is hypocritical to think that somehow that doesn't apply to the U.S.