Honestly imo the impulse to compare two negative things in two different flawed systems to each other as “no better than” or “just as bad…”
like what is the point of even making the comparison? Corruption in the prison system sucks for people in two places but somehow they cancel each other out because people and governments in both places focus on the other and ignore their own…
Ghoulish, even.
IMO? Apathy.
How do you get that out of what he said?
Maybe go read the exchange.
I apologize. It was not my intention to equivocate. It is just shocking to me how similar the two countries really are in spite of all of the self-professed (largely for show) ideological differences. It is at the point where the biggest difference in the horror stories coming out of the two countries seems to be the currency. This is nothing new, of course, but it feels like whatever horrible thing China has done in the news lately is almost sure to happen a few years later in America.
Of course, to be fair, there are vast differences between different states in the US, many of which are almost up to international standards of human development.
No worries personally, I mean the OP does it too. It’s just a way that people relate to situations but it seems like all it does is bolster the support/tolerance for prison cruelty in either place. 
I can’t even imagine the negligence that would lead to missing internal organs.
ETA: or rather directly lead. Only blame shifting to other parties.
Of course, to be fair, there are vast differences between different states in the US, many of which are almost up to international standards of human development.
Dude, you might oughta slow your roll there.
I’ve lived abroad before, and it can be easy to forget that media outlets “naturally” sensationalize what they report. The U.S. is a mess in a lot ways, but OTOH, viewing news about the U.S. from afar can make it seem FAR more crisis- and crime-ridden than it actually is.
Not so much crime-ridden, but look at child mortality rates, poverty, and education across a lot of states, and yeah, they are substandard.
I don’t recall writing that it’s a land of milk and honey.
I have read the exchange. Before asking the question, even.
I still don’t understand how the mention of a price of a bullet leads to any sort of best guess that it means the value of the human (or his body). Nor how that must mean that Jesse13927 either was or intended to be dehumanizing.
“Maybe go read the exchange” reads to me as a dismissal of my question, that it is somehow obvious how you came to suspect those meanings. I assure you I do not find it obvious in any way, even after reading that exchange.
Yes, that is a good point as well. But looking at what legislatures are doing in some states, what has already been written into law in those states, and then looking at how even the really good states for HDI still fall short of much of Europe…it does not lead me to conclude that this is a first-world country. I still love America, but that is all the more reason why I am horrified by what it is becoming.
Yes, and it is true that say, healthcare and the prison industrial complex are indeed just two areas where most USians have become inurred to disgustingly cruel and lethal practices.
Never said you did, I just think that someone pointing out that a lot of things in the US are behind what “the west” considers developed isn’t a provocation, but a statement of fact, IMHO.
BTW, I think where I live now (the UK), has a shedload of these same problems, I’m not pointing fingers without reason.
Sure, I agree, but I what I wrote about was how sensationalizing media can distort our point of view, especially when we’re in another country.
No country on Earth is any “better” than any other when it comes to ‘man’s inhumanity to man.’
All countries have some history where they have acted horrifically.
For good or ill:
The great and sad irony is that the jingoistic so-called “patriots” in both countries who are most vigorous in pointing out the flaws of the other are also the very same people who are the most zealous about instituting and preserving all of those same flaws in their own countries. The people who denounce China for being “communist” are eager to emulate its authoritarian state, while those in China who call out the US for this or that are as capitalistic as it comes, exploiting workers in ways that would make the robber barons of old blush.
It all boils down to fascism and jingoism, just under different veils.
Yeah this is a thing too. I’ve fallen to this kind of thinking before a bit myself but when I learn more about the less familiar culture it often has jumped out at me that there are enormous privileges that come with being in and from the US despite many visible and significant problems. Sometimes the fact that we hear anything at all is one of those privileges and it definitely skews the perception of the information. The relatively free and unfettered press in the US makes a big difference in this even if and when it introduces new problems.
Oh for sure, looking in from the outside definitely can change your point of view, but I think there’s more than just the media’s perspective, I think living in, and experiencing, another country’s rights and limitations can influence that perspective far more than the media can.
