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This is whataboutism - an unhelpful comparison to something else bad to dismiss criticism. If you had said “the US and Britain also does this, we need ways to
by kennywinker 6mo ago
This is whataboutism - an unhelpful comparison to something else bad to dismiss criticism.
If you had said “the US and Britain also does this, we need ways to combat state propaganda on wikipedia” it would be a helpful addition to the conversation.
- fabiopicchi 6mo agoIt wouldn't be helpful. It would be a way of ending the conversation in a neutral "everyone is bad" tone while concealing the difference in scale of the violations committed by the different parties. I didn't dismiss any criticism, I just said that, "given the scale of what imperialist countries do, pointing your finger at Russia is silly". Concealing the scale is the best way to keep the status quo, it is how US and Israel can call anyone terrorist while they murder tens of thousands of people. I don't believe there is a solution to state propaganda on Wikipedia. There is good, bad, and biased (which can be useful for analysis) information there, and the "solution" is to read things critically.
- kennywinker 6mo agoPretty silly of you to say “I didn't dismiss any criticism” when your comment was clearly dismissive of criticism of russian propaganda: “Pretty silly to point the finger at Russia” But you have a point - “both bad” can be used to hide one really-bad thing by putting it next to a kinda-bad thing. I don’t believe there is a solution per se, but there are ways to combat it beyond just reading critically.