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by mc32 3213 days ago
Sure, but what about it? Does it not invalidate the basis for complaining, or at least the moral high ground, if you do the same thing? Of course on some level it can be a legalistic tool where while you might have done something illegal you can sue the other party for having done the same, like a countersuit.

I'm almost willing to bet that if Merkel was found to have interfered on behalf of Bernie, we'd hear some musings, but not nearly the vehemence we hear about alleged Russian interference (that particular accusation seems to have become muted recently, however).
2 comments
Clubber 3213 days ago
We discovered Merkel was spied on by the NSA. I believe she had her phone tapped. That was pretty big but it blew over.
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Ivoirians 3213 days ago
I don't think anyone is trying to make the case that their side is morally superior. The issue at hand is how to prevent and punish what looks to be serious, efficacious interference, not how to perfectly avoid being biased or hypocritical. Like, pointing out "liberals would be arguing less vehemently about interference if it had produced an outcome they wanted" is pretty meaningless, don't you think? And "they did a bad thing, but we do it too, so guess we can't do/say anything about it" is nonsensical in a world where we aren't all competing for moralistic brownie points.

Not that humanity would be better off if we were less biased, of course. <30 percent of Republicans and >70 percent of Democrats believe Russia tried to influence our election. Disheartening.

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mc32 3213 days ago
If say the Russians had had an information/disinformation programme to help Hillary win and she had won, I am sure Repubs would have cried to the high heavens, but I think the media would have been less vehement about it.

I do think the US does put forth the idea that we do operate from a relatively higher moral ground vis a vis Russia (and others) and human rights, freedoms, cronyism, corruption, etc. We have NGOs working to that effect in addition to the diplomatic ranks and corporate governance, etc.

It's not that we are wrong, but we're also not always right.

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