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Comment by FilosofumRex | Hacker News Reader

San Altman's lack of scruples, notwithstanding, I find the distinction between democracies (USA, Israel, India) that oppress, occupy and murder hundred of thousands, and autocratic regimes (Saudis, China, N. Korea) who censor, imprison, or execute a few dozens of their opponents, to be a distinction without a difference.

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How can you expect to see any difference if you ignore the difference?

> few dozens of their opponents

Why did you ignore the censored/oppressed billions of people living there?

I'm pretty sure at least a third of the Chinese (more than the population of the US), aren't looking at the US right now and saying, "Yeah, we want some of that."

I'm pretty sure that at least a third of the Chinese can't look at the US right now in any honest way -- they are behind the biggest content-filtering firewall in the world, and are fed a ton of propaganda from the state (not that we're not). I doubt most Chinese have a properly informed opinion of the United States.

But yet, it's Americans who in large numbers want to go to war with China over an island next to it, or worst, over an ideology they don't understand.

Americans and other English-only countries are the most disinformed people in the world.

Censoring is a lesser crime than murdering - the blood on the hands of the US, Israel and India far exceeds that of any so-called authoritarians.

It's US, not China that operates the world's largest prison system - you should ask prisoners if they rather be free subjects of an authoritarian regime or prisoners with due process in a democracy.

It's also weird to call democracies countries that impose their rule over people that have no say in said rule.

Or fail entirely to punish those who destroy democracies in other places... If democracy was a highest value, each time this should result in highest punishment.

National sovereignty is valued above democracy, because respecting sovereignty avoids wars between nations.

We assume such wars are more destructive to human well-being than the lack of democracy.

That's the idea, anyway. I'm not sure how correct it is.

How does India meet the definition of invader?

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