[leereeves]

Not that I agree with that, but drugs are illegal everywhere in the world and prisoners can be forced to work in many countries. In your opinion, that makes the US the least liberal and democratic country in the world?

How do you define liberal and democratic? Personally, I would include things like freedom of speech, the right to love who you will, and universal sufferage.

There are many countries that don't respect these freedoms.

[maxerickson]

They are obviously talking about the implementation of our prison system and not just drugs being illegal.

I mean, it is really quite clear. I don't think I agree with how they are characterizing it, it's just that the intended meaning is easy to see.

[leereeves]

And I'm asking if they believe that one criteria weighs more heavily than all the others.

That's putting aside the question of whether the US is really the worst prison system in the world, ie, granting that point for the sake of argument, though I strongly disagree with it. If I had to go to prison somewhere, the US would rank below a few but above most countries.

[maxerickson]

Whataboutism is the mightiest endorsement of a justice system.

Again, they are clearly talking about forced labor in the prison system, you can't meaningfully analyze the other parts of their comment separately from that.

[leereeves]

The claim was:

> the USA is the least liberal and democratic ( in the true sense of the word ) country in the world

Comparison to other countries isn't whataboutism...it's the essence of the claim.

You and executesorder66 are arguing against a strawman. The claim wasn't that the US is perfect. Obviously that claim would be easy to refute.