Perhaps this will help: Whataboutism […] denotes in a pejorative sense a procedure in which a critical question or argument is not answered or discussed, but r

Perhaps this will help: Whataboutism […] denotes in a pejorative sense a procedure in which a critical question or argument is not answered or discussed, but retorted with a critical counter-question which expresses a counter-accusation. From a logical and argumentative point of view it is considered a variant of the tu-quoque [1] pattern, which is a subtype of the ad-hominem [2] argument. [1] Attacking the arguer for hypocrisy. [2] Attacking the arguer rather than the argument. If you find yourself accused of whataboutism it tends to mean you’re engaged in political rhetoric rather than intelligent focussed debate - which is fine, but not (as far as I understand it) what HNs is for.