Whataboutism exists to show fucks like you contradictions in your beliefs, not to excuse what is happening. Opposition is so strong in any capitalist country nowadays, isn’t it? Freedom of speech is universal right, until couple of journalists say something too “freespeachy”. Sure, making people to vote between two indistinguishable candidates is fine, but when one guy wins throughout the years - FREEDOM IS LOST, AUTHORITARIANISM IS ON THE RISE. Play pretend game of thinking that these two are so different, that one can be called democracy and other is fascistic dystopia is really funny.
AND OF COURSE THERE IS A FUCKING NAZI SLOGAN IN THE FLAIR, HOW VERY DEMOCRATIC.
- Say the US must combat Russia because they are evil because of bad thing.
- Wait until someone tells you the US does the same bad thing to a worse degree.
- Call it whataboutism as it was given in response to your first statement.
- It is now a fallacy, so you can ignore the existence of the presented fact. Russia is still evil and the US isn’t, since you do not accept the info given to you.
- Continue supporting the US against Russia because they are evil because of bad thing.
Exactly. This is the real problem with calling out whataboutism. People like us actually understand what whataboutism means, we’re not stupid. We’re calling it out against liberals because they don’t see the hypocrisy of their system.
Ah, fair point, but you used the word “liberals” in the classical political sense, and not to describe exclusively supporters of the Democratic Party as a reb-blooded American would do. This can only mean that you are a Russian bot programmed to spread misinformation, as there is not such a thing as organic, differing workframes if these can be used to oppose the hegemony of the USA. I shall now proceed to discard your statement.
What’s funny is they don’t know what whataboutism is. If someone says “Russia is doing a bad thing” and I reply with “USA is doing that same bad thing”, that’s not whataboutism. I’m speaking about the same topic you are. If I were to say “USA is doing some other bad thing (that wasn’t related at all to that topic” then that would be whataboutism.
That’s what it academically means.
Real word use its literally just a new word for hypocrisy that in their minds makes rhe hypocrisy thing not count.
Ironically its the same thing as the whole fake news thing. It was originally a literal deffinition but then chuds drove it into the ground until it meant “news I don’t like”
Liberals did the same thing and now whataboutism is “a valid point that I don’t like”
It really is hilarious they think they’re different, let alone better than red Maga.
Ironically, you misunderstood whataboutism. A few definitions for context:
- “the act or practice of responding to an accusation of wrongdoing by claiming that an offense committed by another is similar or worse” (Merriam-Webster
- “the strategy of responding to an accusation with a counter-accusation instead of a defense of the original accusation.” Wikipedia
- “a conversational tactic in which a person responds to an argument or attack by changing the subject to focus on someone else’s misconduct, implying that all criticism is invalid because no one is completely blameless” Dictionary.com
The specifics of the definition change, but the broad idea is consistent. Your example of “but what about the USA” is a perfect example of whataboutism because not only does it not address or defend Russia’s “bad thing” but it also attempts to redirect the accusation to a different country.
But simply calling something “whataboutism” doesn’t mean the person bringing up someone or something else doesn’t have a point. It’s frustrating seeing someone say “oh you used a whataboutism, you have no argument” because it’s still good to note if the pot is calling the kettle black.
But simply calling something “whataboutism” doesn’t mean the person bringing up someone or something else doesn’t have a point.
Horseshit, y’all use it as a thought-terminator and nothing else. So 'til THAT meta changes, you’re full of shit, and STILL not worth debating because you have literally no moral high ground to criticize the actions of any other fucking country with your four hundred unbroken years of genocide, slavery, and fomenting of terrorism.
You really thought you was doing something with this long ass effort post I know your fingers hurting like shit
“Whataboutism” is a term invented by US diplomats and the CIA to deflect pointing out the hypocrisy of the US.
I don’t have a link, but look up journalist Michael Bernard who started using the term to criticize the Soviet Union “deflecting” human rights abuse accusations by the US, in the 1970s. Shortly after his article got published in a local Australian newspaper, the term started getting used everywhere in the West regarding the Soviet Union, indicating a concerted effort, as there were direct references to the article (e.g. New York Times articles referencing an unknown Australian journalist writing for a small local magazine).
There’s another story that it was invented by a British journalist for doing the same criticism for the IRA, but it never really got popular until Michael Bernard used it in his own article.
The original name is “and you are lynching ne–os” which was the response the soviets gave any time Americans tried to take moral high ground. They literally changed the name to whataboutism to hide the fact the original made them sound like the nazis that they are, and it worked.
In a way it’s kind of like how they made “tankie” in a way to disguise who the tanks were going after.
<(MLK and Malcolm X were assassinated by the American state for being “too radical”, Asange is being extradited for reveling that the US government lied and just recently a whistleblower was shot for wanting to reveal Boeing’s dangerous cornercutting)
It’s so annoying that liberals treat the US as a “flawed but still a force for good” and that the US is the “ imperfect but still forefront at spreading tolerance and democracy in the world”. It makes me sick.
