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Comment by devilcius | Hacker News Reader

Some would argue Guantanamo Bay is a concentration camp:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guantanamo_Bay_detention_camp#...

And many of America's own citizens criticize the US government for running it. What happens to Chinese citizens when they comment negatively on the Uighur camps?

The fact that the US does not always live up to the ideals its espouses is no knock against those ideals.

The American system, for all of its faults, at least manages to select correct at times to point closer to its ideals. Maybe I don't follow closely enough, but I generally don't see anything like that happening. Perhaps a bit of 'de-Maoification' of his personality cult at one point?

The embrace of a more market economy wasn't a good accepted for its own sake, but more for its practical benefits, so I wouldn't count that.

In some ways, that is the genius of Pax Americana. Give people the idea that they have a voice to criticize and to change policy, and forever hold the moral high ground over regimes that don't bother to make that pretense.

Then have politicians run for office promising to address that. Once they're in office, they drop it completely, blaming bureaucracy and 'lack of political will'. Then voters start all over again, with heads held high on the belief that what they want could theoretically be possible with the next candidate. Or the one after that.

The Obama administration came into office on a promise to close Guantanamo, and offer a public option on healthcare. Neither came anywhere close to fruition.

> The Obama administration came into office on a promise to close Guantanamo, and offer a public option on healthcare. Neither came anywhere close to fruition.

For the first, talk to Congress (at least partially):

* https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/feb/24/obama-guanta...

For the second, talk to Lieberman:

* https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/newsletter-art...

Probably plenty of things to blame Obama for with regards to how the Executive acted: these two are weak examples IMHO.

It's simple. The US has amassed such immense power through violence that there are very few US citizens that can actually threaten it. But when they crop up, they do get assassinated.

Nobody credible who knows what a concentration camp is would.

I had explicitly written "remote Muslim minority" to point exactly at the Uyghurs, while avoiding connotations like Guantanamo, or the Japanese internment camps in WW2, to undermine the sloppy argumentation of the post I replied to.

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