It really is whataboutism, by definition though.
“Putin puppets Trump around like a Jeff Dunham prop”
“But WHAT ABOUT all the election interference the US has done in other countries”
And then saying No puppet, but if he was it doesn’t matter because the US has been interfering in other countries.
“It doesn’t matter” is your own binary thinking projected onto others. Which is also what whataboutism as a pithy phrase thrown around is, as it is abstract thinking superimposed over real life and cannot account for how circumstances are intertwined, what is influencing what, and why those connections matter. Spend some time in a place like this and you will get a glimpse of the extent to which people put forth serious time and effort to ground in what is observed. This is not a debate bro game.
Abstractions can be a useful tool to communicate when it would otherwise be ineffective to attempt communicating the detail. They are not a replacement for what is observed and confusing them as such is a fast way to being misinformed. Can you explain what the problem is here beyond repeating an abstract debate phrase? “Whataboutism” is not an incantation. It needs to convey something useful and accurate about what is occurring.
