There is an argument which I dub the "greater hypocrite" argument, which tends to play out like this: the US prods China for Human Rights violations, and China will prod back, pointing out how the US is not a saint either. China then accuses the US of hypocrisy and looks very smug. Other examples can easily be substituted (eg 'S'pore journalists have a difficult job').

The problem with this is a gross lack of appreciation of proportionality. Isolated police brutality in the US may be bad, but it cannot compare to an entire state apparatus mobilised to brutalise a populace. Journalists being forced to reveal their sources in cases involving CIA leaks is nothing compared to journalists being beaten to death, or imprisoned under trumped up charges.

There is a Chinese proverb: "五十步笑百步" (The soldier who has run 50 steps from the battle laughs at the soldier who has run 100 steps from the battle), analogous to "the pot calling the kettle black". Yet, the soldier who has run only 50 steps has some (small) grounds for pride, given that he started running later. Those using the "greater hypocrite" argument are more like "万步笑十步" (The soldier who has run 10,000 steps from the battle laughs at the soldier who has run 10 steps from the battle), or, if you like, "the deep fryer calling the steamer oily", which is truly perverse.

Even if one accepted the faux equivalence of 10,000 and 10 steps, is hypocrisy the only sin one can commit? Or is it just the easiest to score points on in a divert-attention-from-my-own-problems kind of way?