Hacker News Reader

>Over a decade ago the US recognized the huge mistake of mass incarceration, as such the US prison population has peaked and has begun to decline, with both sides of the political aisle now openly discussing how to correct that broken system.

Until the US has a share equal to its percentage of the global population of incarcerated people (instead of 4-5 times that), and has abolished the death penalty, the shame that are private prisons, and improved the third-world conditions of its prisons, it has nowhere near "recognized its mistake as a culture".

It just has a few fewer prisoners than a decade ago, because of several factors -- including the legalization of marijuana. It's still as Old Testament and punishing to its inmates, and especially to the black population, as ever otherwise.

Btw, regarding China, let's cut it some slack.

For historical reasons not all countries develop at the same speed or are at the same stage. 40 years ago the US still had aggregation. 80 years ago it still lynched blacks.

And China 50 years ago had mass political executions and a full on political slash civil war -- compared to that, sentencing 10 people on a stadium with a crowd present (not executing them with a crowd) is BS.

(Especially since the US also has non-judicial citizens and even relatives of victims attend executions, to enjoy their revenge on the person dying...).

> Btw, regarding China, let's cut it some slack.

No, let's not "cut it some slack" on human rights abuses in the making.

If the cure is the usual "bomb them to democracy", I'll take the abuses...

> If the cure is the usual "bomb them to democracy", I'll take the abuses...

That's a pretty flippant statement to make.

China is an authoritarian country that's moving closer to an autocracy, let's not "cut them any slack" and "take [their human rights] abuses" based on some cartoonish caricature of US actions. China is developing new forms of totalitarian social control may superficially resemble certain western practices (e.g. credit scores and background checks) but there are important differences. If you don't find that troubling, I can't really take your views seriously.

>>> For historical reasons not all countries develop at the same speed or are at the same stage.

This belies some fallacious thinking that countries develop along the same track. This is a common foolish mistake when it comes to thinking about China, which is becoming harder to entertain in light of recent events.

I think GPs point was that one should „clean up his own front porch“ (fix serious problems in their own country) before discussing others. I don’t agree with that though, I think China serves as an example as to where a turn to authoritarianism with heavy focus on economy can go wirh current technology, let alone tomorrow’s. We should be extremely careful to not end up in a dystopia with all the tools that are becoming available. This also shines another light on EU‘s approach to privacy that I think should be highly respected.

From the first link, China sentenced 10 people in front of a crowd but they were executed out of sight. Not that this fully detracts from your point but I appreciate the clarity.

The interesting thing, is that it's a return to the execution parades that used to be very common in decades past:

[2013] "China executes 4 foreigners, televises death march" ... "China has mostly abandoned the once-common practice of parading condemned criminals before crowds in stadiums and through city streets on the way to execution grounds on the edge of cities."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/china-executes-4-foreigners-tel...

First sentence of the Stadium article:

> A court in China has sentenced 10 people to death, mostly for drug-related crimes, in front of thousands of onlookers before taking them away for execution.

Did you mean sentencing in instead of executing? Based on the article you linked, the executions seem to have occurred elsewhere.

I didn't mean to imply they were shot in the stadium. That's my mistake if it was taken that way.

Yes, it was clearly implied. There are indeed countries, like Saudi Arabia, where this sort of thing happens.

Unfortunately, the wording you had "executed in stadiums" is categorically false regardless of original intent. Why not edit it?

> The country you're countering about, China, executes people in stadiums before cheering crowds instead of going the felony route when it comes to drug policy.

No, you read it wrong. The crowd watched felons to be sentenced and then they were taken to the place for execution (private location not open to public display) immediately afterwards. So no public execution like what it was like in the ancient China. I know this because I read similar Chinese news in past.