Hacker News Reader

Comment by pessimizer | Hacker News Reader

Whataboutism is when you accuse your neighbor of making too much noise and he counters by accusing you of beating your kids. It's not when you accuse your neighbor of beating his kids, and he points out that you also beat your kids.

The US has the highest rate of imprisonment in the world, it's not even close.

View on HN

Russia is pretty close to the US. China is estimated, it’s obviously impossible to get any real numbers. If you included Uyghurs it would prob exceed the US in total imprisonment but the rate would still be Low Because you’re comparing 1.4b to 350m.

> Russia is pretty close to the US

It's not pretty close to the US.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarcera...

Rate per 100k

1 - United States - 639

25 - Russia - 325

129 - China - 121

Did you see the note next to China? It says the figure doesn't include re-education camps and internment camps.

https://www.prisonstudies.org/highest-to-lowest/prison_popul...

So bbc is a bit out of date so double checked the source.

So you’re still wrong as “it’s not even close” is wrong.

But my point still stands. We have no real valid data of china, and if you included Uyghurs it would most likely exceed the US in total imprisonment.

I notice you're quiet about Russia.

I’m from NZ and live in Asia.

I don’t talk about Russia because I know very little about it.

> Russia is pretty close to the US

> I don’t talk about Russia because I know very little about it.

Except to tell lies, apparently.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/uk/06/prisons/html/nn2...

No. I looked at your claim and your claims were false. Even with updated data it’s still a false claim.

On what basis is your source better than mine?

If you look at the data source I linked to , prison studies. It’s the same source as Wikipedia and the BBC. But the claim you made was “it’s not even close” when you look at Wikipedia and the source, that isn’t true at all.

I copy pasted from wikipedia.

In my understanding, whataboutism is when instead of addressing valid criticism you start pointing fingers at your neighbor, as if it somehow makes that criticism not apply to you. It's not OK to pee in the street even if everybody else does.

It actually is exactly whataboutism in that case. It’s also known as tu quoque.

The Economist is British.

But in any case, it's whataboutism because police brutality has nothing to do with what is happening in Hong Kong, where the central government is removing local autonomy to impose totalitarianism.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com