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> 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 i
by 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.