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I never really understood why whataboutism is meant to be a universally rejected objection. In this particular case GGP hints that Israel gets favour treatment
by aaplok 2y ago
I never really understood why whataboutism is meant to be a universally rejected objection.
In this particular case GGP hints that Israel gets favour treatment to gets away with anything. GP then retorts that others get away with as much, which is a valid objection to that claim, since it is invalidates the supposed Israeli exception. Neither GP nor GGP claimed that anybody should get away with crimes.
Neither the claim nor the objection are backed by any argument so the whole thread isn't very illuminating, but it has become in fashion to bring up whataboutism against any attempt at contextualising the discussion and I find this a curious trend.
- mlazos 2y agoSaying X is fine because everybody else is doing it is tiresome. It’s implied in the original argument that X is not okay regardless of how many entities are doing X, so obviously it isn’t okay in the other circumstances as well.
- devonsolomon 2y agoYes - but. Whataboutism is often raised to illuminate the claimant’s topic selection bias - which is entirely valid. Often when someone’s arguments are valid and convincing, but their entire vocabulary seems confined to an issue, asking yourself a couple “whatabouts” may help you see biases inherent in the topic bias.