So after all of that, where does that leave the ensalved Muslim workers in Chinese sweatshops?But you are taking the moral high ground.
You just can't see it.
I'm not talking about moral equivalence, that's a blind alley.
The west can't bring about change if it presupposes that its set of values are universal, they're not. Where everyone else is judged along a sliding scale of values that we write and where we are at its pinnacle.
But even if one believes that the principles the west promotes are universal, that western liberal democracy is the benchmark against which everyone else must be judged, what sanctions are justified in their pursuit? We don't talk to China about climate change? We sanction countries and whole populations coz they're not like us? We don't let a Prince in the UAE own a football club?
Yet, like the hypocrites we are, despite the fact we write these "universal" rules and selectively punishes those we proclaim fall short, we don't adhere to them ourselves! Nevertheless we do demand those countries we don't particularly like should.
A little humility and introspection is needed, a little seeing it as they see it wouldn't go amiss.
Or should the bad west not mention them?
It was quite the simple statement to start with tbh