What does it mean to be "one of the #1" of something?

I would say that djcjr's comment actually is relevant - USA is doing a lot to limit human rights year after year and IMHO is likely to lose its reputation as a haven of democracy. Thus, I'd say it's not whataboutism.

Speaking of human rights - I wish there was a medium that aggregated reports of human rights violations, in a manner as broad as possible (multiple perspectives of many organizations, ability to compare countries, analysis of laws, published court decisions etc).

My impresssion is that we should have as much discussion about human rights in general as possible, raising the cost of changing the wrong public image of those who care about it. It might lead to a situation when it's just too expensive to violate the rights and the cheapest way to improve would be not to apply propaganda, but actually improve. What do you think - is this doable?

I think the point he's trying to make is that countries spend millions on public image regardless of their human rights records. There isn't a meaningful correlation until we have examples of countries with good human rights records which aren't spending millions on their public image.

On the flipside, Americans use 'whataboutism' as a way to deflect from valid criticism about their double standards.

"..You know, one of the things that’s been really distressing to me, not even just recently, but over the years, over the last decade, is that poll after poll after poll shows that a clear majority of Americans supports the torture program. And, after everything we’ve learned about torture — that it’s illegal; it’s immoral; the United Nations considers it to be a crime against humanity; that it doesn’t work — Americans are still supportive.

“In the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, I was angry, too. I wanted to kill or capture as many members of Al Qaeda as I could — as a CIA officer. But we can’t lose sight of who we are as a people, as a country.”

John Kiriakou.