Hacker News Reader

Comment by jlgreco | Hacker News Reader

That was not my confusion..... I think you know that.

If your motivation for pointing out that America has some extremely poor properties, even when held in comparison to Singapore, was to somehow reassure me about anything concerning Singapore, then your attempt fell flat.

Saying that the food your diner serves is better than burnt toast does not comfort me. Similarly, saying that you are better than America does not comfort me.

If I say "Your eggs are burnt", don't tell me "well the diner across the street sells burnt toast" and expect me to think better of you.

If your intent was not to comfort me in some way with this comparison, then I don't know what the point of the comparison was. I am confused as to why you are making comparisons to other countries, not why you are making a comparison to America in particular.

View on HN

>If your motivation for pointing out that America has some extremely poor properties, even when held in comparison to Singapore, was to somehow reassure me about anything concerning Singapore

My motivation was not to reassure you about anything.

My point was to dismiss one of the more popular misconceptions about this country (that it is a police state/dictatorship) by comparing it with one that most people on this website are largely familiar with, and largely agree is not a dictatorship or a police state.

>I am confused as to why you are making comparisons to other countries, not why you are making a comparison to America in particular.

I am making comparison to countries that most readers of this site will be familiar with because most will not be familiar with Singapore.

I am confused as to why you are confused. This all seems painfully obvious to me.

> one that most people on this website are largely familiar with, and largely agree is not a dictatorship or a police state.

You picked a poor country to compare it to then.

Congratulations, America is burnt toast and Singapore prides itself for being "better than burnt toast". Quite the sales pitch.

Were I actually making a sales pitch or trying to comfort you, believe me, you'd have a point.

You were trying to suggest that Singapore is not a police state by comparing it to "one that most people on this website are largely familiar with, and largely agree is not a dictatorship or a police state."

Your comparison does nothing of the sort though; America is a police state.

Just look at how many people we imprison (particularly in for-profit prisons), our absurd war on drugs with absolutely obscene punishments and classifications of drugs that defy scientific literature, the number of people executed in America every single year, America's ludicrous notion of civil forfeit that involves the government suing inanimate objects that are incapable of defending themselves, a country where the public prosecutor is a political position used as a stepping stone to greater politics (provided the politician in question can achieve high conviction rates at all costs...) police departments that are increasingly using "seized" property with no legitimate notion of due process to buy themselves "riot gear" and drones...

What is the point of looking at that list and saying "well we aren't that bad"? You are just telling me that your toast is better than burnt.

I am telling you that your toast may not be burnt, but your diner sure as shit still smells of smoke.

If you like burnt food, then knock yourself out, but don't pretend for an instant that it isn't burnt.

>America is a police state.

I thought this might be what you are getting at.

I suspect that, if you find somebody who has lived under the Stasi, or Ceaucescu in Romania, or in North Korea or Burma, or various other examples of actual police states, they'll fall all over themselves telling you how good you've got it.

>What is the point of looking at that list and saying "well we aren't that bad"?

Haha, people might be less inclined to visit me if they thought that the secret police might jail them for thought crime?

I dunno what to say other than "it's good to keep some sort of perspective". I certainly don't deny your criticisms are valid. I just think both societies have a whole lot more to go before they qualify as stasi-esque police states.

Well thank god we aren't as bad as those other guys. Huzzah us.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com