I agree that benchmarks are inherently subjective.
but the fact that you cite your brief as your main argument is funny - you don't even have any inherently subjective numbers to justify what you believe, you only have "I don't believe".
Sure, I have mixed up two things together. I don't think this benchmark is bad, I just did not like it is presented as the ultimate objective truth. The other thing I have mentioned is that it delivers different results from other benchmarks, so the "believe" stems from other benchmarks.
> Democracy is the idea that people should control their government.
who started the recent war with Iran and war in Vietnam? did those wars started by American people? did those wars got approved by the people of America or their elected representatives?
Yes? The US president is elected, and while you or I might the system would be better if presidents didn't have quite so much authority... we know the system works this way when we vote.
I don't know what American LLMs you're using. Just asked Claude, which gives nuanced answers on both, but amounts to "It's contested, but numerous authoritative bodies say yes" and "it depends on your definition of gender".
when it comes to topics like genders, "it depends on your definition"
when it comes to topics like democracy and freedom, western definition is all you must depend on
> You had to reach back 50 years to find US support for dictators.
US allies in the entire middle east are literally all dictators or worse than dictators. For example, Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy, you just need 6 years education in school to understand that is worse than dictators when religion is also heavily involved at the same time.
Yeah I would refine that argument a bit and say the US will sometimes support (or rather, ally with) dictators when the only viable alternative is an arguably worse dictator. There aren't exactly a lot of democracies in the middle east we could be supporting instead.
there weren't a lot of democracies in the world until recently. And even a good many of them are effectively oligarchies.
if you want a good path to true improvement in civil rights (not a useless piece of paper or declaration) just track the wealth of a country. Wealthy countries that didn't rely on natural resources to get wealthy tend to treat their citizens better because, well, they make up the fcking economy.
most western countries had a shortcut to that via colonialism and slavery. It's very rich to then point at countries that don't have that cushion and talk about being morally superior.
Nice theory, but it seems demonstrably untrue to me. Has China made any major strides in civil rights since their economic miracle? They seem as determined to stamp out the few remaining bastions of civil rights in their corner of the world as ever.
Democracy is a morally superior system of government, because it's fundamentally premised on a moral idea; that governments "derive their just powers from the consent of the governed". Dictatorships and aristocracies can make no such claim.
I guess Alex Pretti and Renee Good didn't get much say in whether they should be killed by the US federal government.
Let me remind you that none of their killers wearing US federal agency uniforms have been charged. I thought their rights were covered by their constitution, that was a mistake.
When American citizens are being gunned down in public on cameras by US federal government agents, you are telling me that the US follows the rule of law?
Before you start to offer more propaganda, just tell me where is the killer of Renée Good, has that killer been arrested or charged yet? Keep your censored version of rule of law to yourself and your kids.
oh, btw, the current US President did got convicted for criminal offences, he walked away for free just because he got elected as the president. nice rule of law! what did he do recently - authorised illegal war against another country in which over 100+ school children got killed. Surely your fancy US rule of law is going to do something about this?
It is understandable to feel frustrated when justice fails (and I wholeheartedly agree that justice failed all of us many times in relation to Trump), but I think it's a mistake to confuse those specific failures with a total collapse of the rule of law. The rule of law in the United States does not guarantee a perfect or utopian society; what it does provide is a crucial framework for accountability and transparency that simply does not exist in an authoritarian nation like China.
This difference is clear when we look at how the systems handle tragedy and power. In the U.S., the killing of Renée Good by an ICE agent led to a public release of video, intense scrutiny from an independent press, public condemnation by local officials, and a family using legal tools to seek justice. In China, that event would be immediately erased from the public consciousness, and those who dared to talk about it would face arrest. When the U.S. military bombs a school, human rights groups and journalists _can_ investigate, and members of Congress _can_ publicly demand answers (even if half of them are reluctant to question anything Trump does...). In China, military operations are complete state secrets. Furthermore, while it boils my blood to see Trump evade prison due to complex legal and constitutional questions, the fact that he was indicted and convicted by a jury of ordinary citizens proves that a functional legal apparatus exists outside of his direct control, something not utterly impossible under a dictatorship like China.
Day to day, the rule of law very much exists in the US. Doesn't mean we can just sleep on it, but compared to China, I take comfort in the level of institutional reliability that still exists in America (and I'm not even American).
you are defending a failed system purely based on your prejudice. let me get it straight to you -
1. Renée Good's killer is still free, never got arrested never charged. you can't just ignore such facts and cheap talk to prove the system works. the system completely failed to bring justice even after large scale public unrest. that by itself is the evidence - the failed system answers to no one.
2. Trump evade prison, everyone in the Epstein file evade prison. again, this happened in front of the entire world with extensive media coverage. you need to be extremely innovative to defend such systematic failures of the justice system.
how would you openly argue against such facts? just because you love the US and its systems? lol
but the fact that you cite your brief as your main argument is funny - you don't even have any inherently subjective numbers to justify what you believe, you only have "I don't believe".
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