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Whataboutism is a powerful disease of modern discourse. Pretty soon we will start letting killers go because John Wayne Gacy and Jeffrey Dahmer killed more peop
by api 8y ago
Whataboutism is a powerful disease of modern discourse. Pretty soon we will start letting killers go because John Wayne Gacy and Jeffrey Dahmer killed more people.
I think it arises from a misguided attempt at calling out hypocrisy, but the result is a race to the bottom where any other example negates any criticism. Nobody is perfect so if you have to be perfect to criticize no criticism is possible.
- ShabbosGoy 8y agoYou’re being far too charitable. There are instances of state actors hiring armies of shills that purposefully derail any criticism of their country. Not saying that’s the case here on HN, or in this particular thread. But it is still something to be aware of.
- sametmax 8y ago> I think it arises from a misguided attempt at calling out hypocrisy That's quite a good analysis. And it's literally the case here. OP was going all "white knight", being judgmental and saying how could people help such a bad country as China. Which is both a limited view and hypocrisy at it's finest. I'm veggie, but I don't stop being friends with meat eating people, although I do consider it something cruel. The world is not black and white. It's not because we don't know it's not a proper civilized argument. It's because it was not meant to be an argument in the first place. Just a way to keep OP in check. But yeah, that's a big fail.
- api 8y agoThe trouble is that I always see the inverse too: people deflecting any criticism of American foreign policy by citing other countries with worse human rights records.