Comment on Two ICE agents in plain clothes punched and tried to handcuff an Australian man at Las Vegas Airport. When they saw they were being filmed, they quickly left.

• HugeNerd@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Wah wah wah whataboutism.

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  • mechoman444@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Nothing. What about anything? Your country is a shithole just like mine.

    It’s full of deep-rooted nationalism, political cults that dictate policy, and extreme right-wing politicians pulling the same crap we have here in America.

    You have extreme homelessness in your capital, predatory lending practices, and billionaires in the top 1% who don’t pay their fair share of taxes.

    Your universal healthcare is pretty good, though. I can’t say anything bad about that.

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• SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Irrelevant.

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  • mechoman444@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    No, I’m not saying you can’t criticize America because you’re from another country. I’m saying you don’t get to sit on a moral pedestal while pretending your country is somehow above the same behavior.

    Your country has participated in military interventions, surveillance, controversial policing, treatment of Indigenous peoples, immigration detention, and plenty of other policies that deserve criticism. Yet somehow America is uniquely evil while your country gets a pass. That’s selective outrage.

    So yes, I’m going to defend my country when someone from another country spends their time lecturing Americans as if theirs is fundamentally different. It isn’t. The differences are often a matter of degree, not kind.

    You can criticize America all you want. I have no issue with that. What I take issue with is the double standard. If you’re going to condemn the United States for something, then apply that exact same standard to your own country. If you don’t, then this isn’t about principles, it’s about your bias against America.

    Don’t expect Americans to quietly nod along while foreigners endlessly dump on their country. We’re allowed to push back, we’re allowed to defend it, and we’re allowed to point out when the criticism comes from someone whose own country engages in many of the same practices they’re denouncing. If you don’t like being called out for that, the solution isn’t to tell Americans to stop defending their country, it’s to apply your standards consistently.

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