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This tactic is used by trolls to distract from the real issue. It puts people on the defensive rather than discussing the actual topic. “Whataboutism” at its be

This tactic is used by trolls to distract from the real issue. It puts people on the defensive rather than discussing the actual topic. “Whataboutism” at its best.

sofixa 5y ago
Sometimes it's not even a troll distracting, sometimes it's a stupid American who can't not talk about his unique experience - you see this often on Reddit, someone from a country will complain about something specific there, and an American will show up to say "that's nothing, here at Whatever, TX, it's even worse/better/bigger/cooler/etc."
- gafferongames 5y ago
  But usually it's trolls https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism
User23 5y ago
The term “whataboutism” is a tell for intellectual laziness at best. Considering multiple particular cases to draw general conclusions is basic ratiocination. You might as well just call the person you’re talking to a “chud” instead and be done with it.
- gafferongames 5y ago
  If you cannot defend a subject without resorting to whataboutism, I would say this instead is intellectual laziness.
  - User23 5y ago
    I wouldn’t call Socrates intellectually lazy.
    - gafferongames 5y ago
      But what about Socrates?
  - smcl 5y ago
    More often than not when I've seen "whataboutism" used here it means "You can't say that (about me), I said it (about you) first!" which is in my opinion, intellectually lazy. There are times when a bad faith whatabout-ist argument is made as a diversionary tactic and they are frustrating, but the original comment[0] we are discussing does not feel like that to me. In fact the comment they were replying to is making the lazy and intellectually lacking argument. [0] = https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30579098 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30579098
ashwagary 5y ago
It's not always whataboutism, sometimes it's just a comparison. Americans have this strange habit of expecting their "enemy of the day" to operate under a different standard than they do. These comparisons put things in perspective for people temporarily blinded by jingoism.

This tactic is used by trolls to distract from the real issue. It puts people on the defensive rather than discussing the actual topic. “Whataboutism” at its best.

sofixa 5y ago

Sometimes it's not even a troll distracting, sometimes it's a stupid American who can't not talk about his unique experience - you see this often on Reddit, someone from a country will complain about something specific there, and an American will show up to say "that's nothing, here at Whatever, TX, it's even worse/better/bigger/cooler/etc."

gafferongames 5y ago
But usually it's trolls https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism

User23 5y ago

The term “whataboutism” is a tell for intellectual laziness at best. Considering multiple particular cases to draw general conclusions is basic ratiocination. You might as well just call the person you’re talking to a “chud” instead and be done with it.

gafferongames 5y ago
If you cannot defend a subject without resorting to whataboutism, I would say this instead is intellectual laziness.
- User23 5y ago
  I wouldn’t call Socrates intellectually lazy.
  - gafferongames 5y ago
    But what about Socrates?
- smcl 5y ago
  More often than not when I've seen "whataboutism" used here it means "You can't say that (about me), I said it (about you) first!" which is in my opinion, intellectually lazy. There are times when a bad faith whatabout-ist argument is made as a diversionary tactic and they are frustrating, but the original comment[0] we are discussing does not feel like that to me. In fact the comment they were replying to is making the lazy and intellectually lacking argument. [0] = https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30579098 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30579098

ashwagary 5y ago

It's not always whataboutism, sometimes it's just a comparison. Americans have this strange habit of expecting their "enemy of the day" to operate under a different standard than they do. These comparisons put things in perspective for people temporarily blinded by jingoism.