I think I disagree that this is Whataboutism. I did not get the impression that the commenter was trying to "discredit an opponent's position by charging them with hypocrisy" (from the wiki link), but rather that he/she was pointing out an instance of apparent double standards.
I could be wrong. He/she might be attempting to defend China's policies. It just didn't come across that way to me.
> In addition, making a claim from a fresh anonymous account conveys the message that you do not actually stand behind it, giving it zero credence.
Let me do it instead then:
Why is Nytimes so concerned about China while failing completely to put the spotlight on the burgeoning surveillance culture at home?
Who is going to talk about draconian surveillance, secret courts, secret orders, gag orders and government officials empowered to violate your dignity and privacy by searching your phone and personal effects. Why is Snowden still in Russia? Are we to pretend all this is not happening?
All this is left to the EFF. This is a kind of denial and posturing - oh look how bad they are while looking the other way at the growing authoritarianism at home.
Not even talking about the current censorship of alternative voices by Google, Facebook and others in support of mainstream media like the nyt with completely opaque and non transparent standards and lending credence to shadowy groups like propornot.
I have an account created 1284 days ago and linked to keybase.io, is it credible now?
What does an anonymous account have to do with anything? Whataboutism cannot be used to coverup hypocrisy and perpetuate denial.
China is using a hammer, we do it much more slyly, harassing journalists at airports, creating lists, hounding whistle-blowers, de-legitimizing alternate voices and idea, have in-effect erected a total surveillance state and empowered government agents to ruffle through our personal stuff. What more needs to be done?
These are huge transgressions against the democratic ideal that the NYT and mainstream media don't lose sleep over but apparently we need to distract ourselves with China. This is a kind of denial, there is no moral high ground to pull this kind of thing off.
The chinese have no illusion about their government, but we are happy to defend ours while they trample our rights. A totalitarian would prefer our way.
Second, your comment crosses into personal attack, which is against the rules here. Please don't do that again.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html