[nforgerit]

How is that more than a superficial label if western democracies behave like big hypocrites?

- Starting dubious wars against foreign nations? We've had Afghanistan and Iraq.

- Spying on and criminalizing citizens? We're having Five Eyes and possibly much more than we don't know about.

- Treating whistleblowers against our standards of human rights? We're having Manning, Snowden and Assange. And probably many more we haven't heard about.

I'm not repeating some whataboutisms trying to relativize, e.g., the horrible attack of Russia against Ukraine or the Chinese Social Scoring system. I'm just asking about the meaning of "democracy" in the Western world is, if our gov'ts are sh*tting on our values any time they need.

[maldev]

Can you explain how Snowden or Assange are mistreated against our standards of human rights? Snowden hasn't been in the US and is in Russia for years, and when he was in the US, he was never treated wrongly. And Assange hid out in an embassy to dodge charges. If you break the law, get people killed, push propaganda from Russia, you're going to have to face a Jury of your peers. Unlike China where you just get disappeared, we have a court system where you can get a trial by jury.

[Convolutional]

> face a Jury of your peers

Like the Arab nationalists being waterboarded in Guantanamo Bay?

Although some of them the US realized it picked up the wrong guy and released them.

Incidentally, Guaantanamo Bay is occupied by the US military against the wishes of Cuba.