Obfuscation in denial

One of the more significant facets of an intellectually dishonest debate is that it tends to set aside reality. Issues of significant concern become whitewashed as minor episodes become made equivalent to major episodes as if there is no difference. The current debate on torture illustrates this. The imperialism of Russia in its invasion of Georgia could be another.

For torture, the examples center on the obsession with the Guantanamo Bay detention camp (Wikipedia) and the effort to ‘prove’ that the U.S. is violating human rights or otherwise being evil. A contrast for perspective is pointed out at NRO linking to a video about Real Torture.

We obsess over whether or not waterboarding is torture and a common matter of state policy while we ignore what regimes like Iran do as a regular treatment of prisoners. Remember those videos from the previous Iraq regime where handcuffed prisoners were tossed off the roof of multi story buildings?

A convenient target is a lazy man’s choice. It is easy to find fault and attack a target that is willing to listen and will try to accommodate complaints and where the problems are primarily at the surface of the culture. It is entirely another to go after the severe cases where the problem is embedded deep within the culture and the state will deny or even censure any complaint about its behavior.