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Comment by smnrchrds | Hacker News Reader

> or slavery 300 years ago

I am no apologist for any country, but wouldn't a better point be the very real, widespread, and constitutionally-protected prisoner slavery, which is happening in America today not just 300 years ago?

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That’s bad sure, but does it really compare to sourcing 65% of transplant organs, circa 10,000 a year, from executed prisoners in a system with an opaque legal system, minimal civil rights and in which even the number of executions per year is a state secret?

Without trying to justify anything, no system is perfect but at least we can talk about it. In China even having this conversation might make you liable to a citizenship points penalty that could end up with you being denied basic rights like the ability to book even domestic flights.

China literally has forced labor camps.

It's definitely true that it's a stronger argument, but you're playing right into the design of apologist propaganda. By making constant half-assed arguments against something, you get people to disagree with the crap argument then you get other people to present the strongest argument for the sake of arguing. This successfully gets people arguing both sides of an argument about a subject that wasn't part of the original criticism in the first place.

The best trolls tell something almost true to get people involved in a fight about details rather than countering the larger misdirection.

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