Hacker News Reader

Comment by earenndil | Hacker News Reader

I agree with what you said, partly. And I agree that there are serious problems with chinese culture and government (at least, from my perspective). But, why should the US government be any better?

View on HN

>But, why should the US government be any better?

Its foundational principles are superior.

As an American citizen, I'm pretty ashamed our Constitution has forever enshrined slavery, and it's something that still resonates today. There is a terrible irony of setting a colony free from the UK and then having the heritage of slavery being celebrated in swaths of the United States for hundreds of years, even after abolition, as some sort of worthy heritage.

The US Constitution also includes the means to amend the document, which has been done numerous times, including the 13th Amendment, which corrects Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3. There's of course still room for improvement, we have the means do do so, creating an even more perfect union. While keeping in mind the past (which, as an append-only document, the Constitution makes sure we do) and working for the future (while perhaps chafing at the rate of improvement), I think that's also something to be proud of.

Oh yes you are absolutely right. I should have added to my original comment, China does some horrible things, but short of a world war ( based on the geographic location of Tibet/China) we are going to have to convince the Chinese to change their behavior - that foundation argument isn't going anywhere, and I have had this discussion on this topic with Chinese nationals and it always comes back to "it's our country" and then back to many issues that are currently not going well in the United States and how we Americans need to fix our own house first.

Also, I imagine explaining the 3/5ths clause is pretty monstrous burden for parents of kids of color today, I remember a large part of this discussion in high school civics made me feel a little bit ill. My conservative teacher back then was pretty proud of this "compromise".

What foundational principle? White supremacy? Genocide and theft of land?

It's nice to know that we are just as brainwashed as the chinese.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com