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Comment by mc32 | Hacker News Reader

Pretty much, except for the frivolous human sacrifice aspect.

Look up king Leopold of Belgium if you're looking for a less "frivolous human sacrifice" aspect during that time period.

Humans have a strange thirst for blood, whether its for religion or money.

Yes, the random genocides in the name of progress or capital gain are totally different. I'm sure that the starving irish, native americans, and asians who were caught in the opium wars died with grateful appreciation that there were no priests around to oversight their expeditious sending to the afterlife.

I don’t know why you are being downvoted. Whether it is ritualistic human sacrifice or pushing native Americans onto reservations, it is all versions of trading human lives for our own benefit. This takes many forms from the person who uses another person’s body for their own sexual gratification to wage theft to murdering people in a ritualistic setting to curry a God’s favor. It is all about how can I use others (other’s time, bodies, possessions, lives, etc.) to get gain for myself.

The reason is mostly the tone I think. Too sharp and makes statements that are both uncomfortable and hard to argue against. A counter argument could be constructed, but it would be difficult and backlashing is easier.

You just self-congratulated your own argument. You’re getting downvoted because you’re not contributing anything meaningful to the discussion. Whataboutism does not justify criticism of a practice.

This answered directly to a comment attempting to differentiate religious from other imperialist practices. I can only see "aboutism" in this, but no "whataboutism" – that is, maybe in those arguing it may be just like any other argument they do not appreciate.

Read the whole thread. The human sacrifice was being criticized. OP did a knee jerk “like all the empires” and got a reply pointing out that many had banned human sacrifice hundreds of years before that.

OP then changed gears to include completely different reasons for death to make it seem like that made human sacrifice no different. Textbook whataboutism.

> I don’t know why you are being downvoted.

This argument is generally used by people to defend bad institutions. I've heard Confederate apologists makes the exact same argument you have here ("Look at the Union treatment of Native Americans. All sides in the Civil War were immoral.").

There are gradations of bad behavior. Treating bad behavior as if it's all the same just encourages a race to the bottom.

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