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It's a thought-extinguishing tactic. It attempts to redirect or scatter attention away from the topic at hand. This could be in a misguided sincere attempt to d

It's a thought-extinguishing tactic. It attempts to redirect or scatter attention away from the topic at hand. This could be in a misguided sincere attempt to draw analogies, or could be more nefarious. Whataboutism seems to commonly occur when some agent of power is being criticized.

okl 5y ago
In addition Whataboutism never tries to deliver an argument in favour of your position, only arguments against other positions.
- thriftwy 5y ago
  It is usually invoked in the fashion: - We have this and that reason to do {thing}. - These reasons are laughable and you still don't have excuse to do {thing}. - What about when you did {thing} with ever worse reasons stated? In this case I would say whataboutism is justified, or at least, no constructive dialogue is possible.
  - okl 5y ago
    It is not justified because however worse the reasons of the other party are, it will never make your own argument true. Your example exhibits the tu-quoque fallacy. You are right with the last sentence. Unfortunately few people are interested to find out what's true in our world nowadays — for them it is more important to feel justified with their position regardless if its true or false.
  - vba616 5y ago
    The key here is that when talking to an American, "you" means every American since the founding of the US. Collectively, that's an endless mine of material. When talking to anyone else, "you" means one individual, like Putin, plus one can be sure an American won't remember a single thing he did more than a year ago and that can be dismissed as a digression in any case.
anon2020dot00 5y ago
People who cry whataboutism are the ones extinguishing critical thought. No one can think or compare or draw analogies anymore. Analogy: Definition, a thing which is comparable to something else in significant respects. "works of art were seen as an analogy for works of nature" Anytime anyone brings-up Western aggression, people cry whataboutism and so the topic cannot be discussed anymore. It's fine for people to say that two wrongs don't make a right or that even if the Iraq invasion was based on lies about weapons of mass destruction that doesn't make Putin's invasion of Ukraine any less evil or harmful or destructive. But most people don't even bother and just cry whataboutism. Whataboutism makes sense, victims of abuse are not allowed to abuse others just because they were abused themselves. But it's not whataboutism to critically analyse and compare what is the justification of the Iraq War and Ukraine invasion. President Biden probably wouldn't just cry whataboutism, he would state clear and convincing reasons why the Ukraine invasion isn't justified and why the Iraq invasion was. It's not whataboutism to analyze, compare, collect evidence and come to a judgment.
- watwut 5y ago
  > Anytime anyone brings-up Western aggression, people cry whataboutism and so the topic cannot be discussed anymore This is literally lie. There are both discussions and articles about Iraq, Afganistan and what have you all the time. Especially here in HN. Hey, why do you dare to talk about Iraque when you did not stopped Balkan conflicts, you never attempted to help Tibet or stop genocide going on in Chine, so no talking about anything until those two stop. Whataboutism is not about analyzing or drawing paralel nor anything like that. It is transparently bad faith. Somehow twisting Ukraine and Eastern Europe in EU deserving punishment for Iraque and Syria from Putin, because Americans something something. "Why dont countries surrounding Ukraine lock their borders to refugees, like I guess, they apparently demanded other countries surrounding conflicts to lock their borders ..." something something.
  - anon2020dot00 5y ago
    Here I'll give you a quick example: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30558245 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30558245 Mikeb85 "> invades Iran The difference between Ukraine and all the other countries invaded in the last 50 or so years is that Ukraine is a real democracy and liberal, modern society. Iran, Syria, Iraq, etc... are not the same as Ukraine." femiagbabiaka "Truly amazing. This statement shows that you know very little about the history of Ukraine or Iran, Syria, Iraq." Mikeb85 "It's truly amazing how much whataboutism and Russian propaganda there is in the US." Mikeb85 is claiming that Ukraine is not the same as Iran, Syria, Iraq as a "a real democracy and liberal, modern society". femiagbabiaka challenges this claim and is stating that Mikeb85 doesn't know the history of those countries. Mikeb85 responds with "So much Russian propaganda and whataboutism". Honestly, where is the whataboutism in what femiagbabiaka said? Answer: no whataboutism. All femiagbabiaka said is that Iran, Iraq, Syria were/are real societies not deserving to be bombed by stronger powers just like Ukraine; whether that is true or not is debatable but what is not debatable is not there is no whataboutism in that statement. My pet peeve is people mis-using "whatboutism", calling whataboutism at the very mention of other countries such as Iraq; and above is a simple example of that. Mis-using whataboutism to just kill all discussion such as on the topic of justified Western or Russian aggression.

okl 5y ago

In addition Whataboutism never tries to deliver an argument in favour of your position, only arguments against other positions.

thriftwy 5y ago
It is usually invoked in the fashion: - We have this and that reason to do {thing}. - These reasons are laughable and you still don't have excuse to do {thing}. - What about when you did {thing} with ever worse reasons stated? In this case I would say whataboutism is justified, or at least, no constructive dialogue is possible.
- okl 5y ago
  It is not justified because however worse the reasons of the other party are, it will never make your own argument true. Your example exhibits the tu-quoque fallacy. You are right with the last sentence. Unfortunately few people are interested to find out what's true in our world nowadays — for them it is more important to feel justified with their position regardless if its true or false.
- vba616 5y ago
  The key here is that when talking to an American, "you" means every American since the founding of the US. Collectively, that's an endless mine of material. When talking to anyone else, "you" means one individual, like Putin, plus one can be sure an American won't remember a single thing he did more than a year ago and that can be dismissed as a digression in any case.

anon2020dot00 5y ago

People who cry whataboutism are the ones extinguishing critical thought. No one can think or compare or draw analogies anymore. Analogy: Definition, a thing which is comparable to something else in significant respects. "works of art were seen as an analogy for works of nature" Anytime anyone brings-up Western aggression, people cry whataboutism and so the topic cannot be discussed anymore. It's fine for people to say that two wrongs don't make a right or that even if the Iraq invasion was based on lies about weapons of mass destruction that doesn't make Putin's invasion of Ukraine any less evil or harmful or destructive. But most people don't even bother and just cry whataboutism. Whataboutism makes sense, victims of abuse are not allowed to abuse others just because they were abused themselves. But it's not whataboutism to critically analyse and compare what is the justification of the Iraq War and Ukraine invasion. President Biden probably wouldn't just cry whataboutism, he would state clear and convincing reasons why the Ukraine invasion isn't justified and why the Iraq invasion was. It's not whataboutism to analyze, compare, collect evidence and come to a judgment.

watwut 5y ago
> Anytime anyone brings-up Western aggression, people cry whataboutism and so the topic cannot be discussed anymore This is literally lie. There are both discussions and articles about Iraq, Afganistan and what have you all the time. Especially here in HN. Hey, why do you dare to talk about Iraque when you did not stopped Balkan conflicts, you never attempted to help Tibet or stop genocide going on in Chine, so no talking about anything until those two stop. Whataboutism is not about analyzing or drawing paralel nor anything like that. It is transparently bad faith. Somehow twisting Ukraine and Eastern Europe in EU deserving punishment for Iraque and Syria from Putin, because Americans something something. "Why dont countries surrounding Ukraine lock their borders to refugees, like I guess, they apparently demanded other countries surrounding conflicts to lock their borders ..." something something.
- anon2020dot00 5y ago
  Here I'll give you a quick example: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30558245 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30558245 Mikeb85 "> invades Iran The difference between Ukraine and all the other countries invaded in the last 50 or so years is that Ukraine is a real democracy and liberal, modern society. Iran, Syria, Iraq, etc... are not the same as Ukraine." femiagbabiaka "Truly amazing. This statement shows that you know very little about the history of Ukraine or Iran, Syria, Iraq." Mikeb85 "It's truly amazing how much whataboutism and Russian propaganda there is in the US." Mikeb85 is claiming that Ukraine is not the same as Iran, Syria, Iraq as a "a real democracy and liberal, modern society". femiagbabiaka challenges this claim and is stating that Mikeb85 doesn't know the history of those countries. Mikeb85 responds with "So much Russian propaganda and whataboutism". Honestly, where is the whataboutism in what femiagbabiaka said? Answer: no whataboutism. All femiagbabiaka said is that Iran, Iraq, Syria were/are real societies not deserving to be bombed by stronger powers just like Ukraine; whether that is true or not is debatable but what is not debatable is not there is no whataboutism in that statement. My pet peeve is people mis-using "whatboutism", calling whataboutism at the very mention of other countries such as Iraq; and above is a simple example of that. Mis-using whataboutism to just kill all discussion such as on the topic of justified Western or Russian aggression.