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"Whataboutism" is pointing out other bad things to excuse or distract from the bad thing I'm doing. Other countries doing the same thing is an argument about w

"Whataboutism" is pointing out other bad things to excuse or distract from the bad thing I'm doing. Other countries doing the same thing is an argument about whether the thing is actually bad, and could be valid.

fluoridation 2y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism For example, when someone accuses you of taking money out of the register, it would be an example of whataboutism to point that the person accusing you does it too. The X in "what about X?" doesn't need to be something fundamentally different, it just needs to be something that distracts from the original criticism. If the real argument is that not disclosing vulnerabilities is not actually a bad thing, then the fact that China also doesn't do it is completely irrelevant.
- dllthomas 2y ago
  > For example, when someone accuses you of taking money out of the register, it would be an example of whataboutism to point that the person accusing you does it too. I don't think it would. Or at least, I don't think it necessarily would. "You do it, therefore it's not bad, therefore I'm not wrong" is a reasonable argument that is not distraction. "All these other people also do it and it is treated as de minimis at worst, and yet you're singling me out for inappropriate reasons" may be reasonable depending on context or may be somewhat abusive... but it is a different argument than "Whataboutism". Bringing up that you do it, too, purely (or mainly?) as a distraction can probably reasonably be accounted Whataboutism, but it's a distractingly noncentral example because of its proximity to those other arguments. > If the real argument is that not disclosing vulnerabilities is not actually a bad thing, then the fact that China also doesn't do it is completely irrelevant. Other agents having made the same decision is perhaps some evidence that it was a reasonable decision, although it very much depends on context.

fluoridation 2y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism For example, when someone accuses you of taking money out of the register, it would be an example of whataboutism to point that the person accusing you does it too. The X in "what about X?" doesn't need to be something fundamentally different, it just needs to be something that distracts from the original criticism. If the real argument is that not disclosing vulnerabilities is not actually a bad thing, then the fact that China also doesn't do it is completely irrelevant.

dllthomas 2y ago
> For example, when someone accuses you of taking money out of the register, it would be an example of whataboutism to point that the person accusing you does it too. I don't think it would. Or at least, I don't think it necessarily would. "You do it, therefore it's not bad, therefore I'm not wrong" is a reasonable argument that is not distraction. "All these other people also do it and it is treated as de minimis at worst, and yet you're singling me out for inappropriate reasons" may be reasonable depending on context or may be somewhat abusive... but it is a different argument than "Whataboutism". Bringing up that you do it, too, purely (or mainly?) as a distraction can probably reasonably be accounted Whataboutism, but it's a distractingly noncentral example because of its proximity to those other arguments. > If the real argument is that not disclosing vulnerabilities is not actually a bad thing, then the fact that China also doesn't do it is completely irrelevant. Other agents having made the same decision is perhaps some evidence that it was a reasonable decision, although it very much depends on context.