Here is an even better example: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30548787 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30548787 Razengan "Not resorting to Whatab

Here is an even better example: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30548787 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30548787 Razengan "Not resorting to Whataboutism, but try to see how the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan (two in a row, and the subsequent occupation for 20 years no less!) by the US was seen as “just” by all the nations now condemning Russia. Take a look at maps of NATO expansion: https://old.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/t37zf4/countries_j https://old.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/t37zf4/countries_j... If America was concerned about Russian nukes in Cuba, shouldn’t Russia be concerned about an alliance encroaching up to their literal border?" selfhoster11 "This is basically whataboutism. I don't consider myself well informed enough on any Middle Eastern conflicts, but if I found anything objectionable there, I'm happy to call out both the US and Russia on their BS. BTW, "NATO expansion" was there for a reason, and you don't get to claim that the new members didn't want to join of their own initiative. Every post-communist country that wants to keep their self-determination is worried about falling back into being Russian puppets once more." Razengan raises the perfectly valid point of how come invasion of Iraq and Afganistan was not met by any outcry or sanctions by those countries who supposedly value countries sovereign rights? selfhoster11 instantly replies with "whataboutism" and so kills the discussion that way. Question: how is asking about what makes the Ukraine invasion different from the Iraq invasion, whataboutism? Answer: It's not whatboutism. People just throw blindly throw whatboutism when there is any discussion about other countries even when there is zero whatboutism. In this example, selfhoster11 doesn't even bother to come-up with any explanation on the differences between Iraq and Ukraine and just cites "whataboutism" like it's a magic word. Russia would be committing Whatboutism if they just said since USA got to invade Iraq and Afganistan and violated those countries rights', we should be able to do the same to Ukraine. Basically, USA committed a wrong and so we get to do the same as well. But that's not what Russia is saying, what Russia is saying that there is such a thing as justified aggression versus a threat; USA's justification for the Iraq invasion was Iraq having WMDs. Russia's justification is threat of Nato Expansion and the interesting discussion would be if that justification is valid or not. But no, most discussions just cry "whatboutism" and all discussion ends there.