China is probably not a comfortable place to live

[MineralMan]

48. It is very hard to ignore repression and abuse in one's own country.

Or, at least, it should be. Attempts to divert from genuine concern and anger about such abuses are indicative of something that is rather ugly, really. Some people, including myself, have occasionally mentioned child sexual abuse in other countries, but that's only to point out the acceptance of such abuse by a church hierarchy, which has consistently covered it up wherever it occurs.

However, my interest is in human rights abuses in my own country, primarily. Children have rights. Immigrants to this country have rights. While such human rights are abused everywhere in the world, such abuses in my own country are my main interest, since I can speak out here and encouraging calling actual people to account.

I'm aware of human rights abuses in other nations, too, but am impotent to cause changes in those nations, generally. I do donate to international human rights organizations, when I can, such as Amnesty International, but I am far more active when it comes to internal abuses in my own nation.

Where children are being sexually abused, migrants are being imprisoned in "camps" at our borders, and people of color or of religions that are not the dominant religion are treated unjustly, I will speak out and do what I can to help eliminate such abuses in my own country. I will do less to fight abuse in, say China, since I have no means to affect any abuses that take place in other nations.

That abuses occur everywhere does not make abuses here any less heinous. But, here, I can stand and be heard. I can, perhaps, make a difference. I am just one person. I have limited access to authority figures. But, my voice is louder here than it is in some other country. I'm very suspicious when people attempt to divert from a real problem within our own borders by pointing out that similar problems occur elsewhere. I know that, but can act more effectively where I am. That a problem is widespread does not mean that it is not important, nor that it should not be addressed here.

Diversion, distraction, and whataboutism detract from finding solutions to real problems. Such tactics harm efforts to eliminate abuses. I don't like seeing people use such tactics.