Item — HN Reader

No, it is not. Whataboutism is a specific term created (by Cold War propagandists) to refer to when the US criticizes the USSR about "X," and the Soviet Union replies by asking about "Y" in the US.

It is not a term created to refer to when some American criticizes any of America's official enemies for "X," and someone else reminds you that America also does exactly "X."

1 comments

> "Whataboutism" or "whataboutery" (as in, "but what about X?") refers to the propaganda strategy of responding to an accusation with a counter-accusation instead of offering an explanation or defense against the original accusation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism

This is a counter accusation and not a defense, ergo, whataboutism.

No, it would be whataboutism to say something like "but in America you extrajudicially kill citizens for protesting the government."

It's not whataboutism to talk about the same subject in the context of a different government. In this case LLM corporations.

All you're doing is deflecting valid criticism. It's not whataboutism to talk about how bad American corporations are to American citizens in the context of talking about how supposedly bad Chinese corporations are to American citizens (China doesn't profit off of the deaths of Americans like health insurance companies (this is whataboutism for example)).

That’s still whataboutism because it’s not the only alternative.

I never understood how people referred to or understood “whataboutsim”.

I personally understand it not as a diversion but as a critique of the moral higher ground implied by the first accusation. Said differently: keep your own house in order.

Because that’s not a logical defense and nobody cares about moral high grounds. That’s why it’s a logical fallacy.

Actions can be judged on their own merits regardless of who presents the arguments.

Hilarious. It is absolutely a logical défense: our societal order and its relative fairness don’t emerge from the void.

Otherwise a victim defending himself is the same as the person assaulting?

Perpetrator: you just stabbed me OMG!

Victim: you were going to rape and kill me

Perpetrator: sorry that’s just whataboutism and definitely not a logical defence. Your actions can be judged on their own merits, regardless of who presents the arguments.

Nope, defense is an action to prevent an attack. China isn’t building coal plants to stop global warming.

Also, the world isn’t two sides. There are tons of participants on this site who are not in the US that criticize both china and the US (i.e. most of Europe). So you realize how stupid the defense looks of “I’m behaving like a piece of shit because this guy behaves like a piece of shit” when there is a room full of people trying to do the right thing.

If your argument is whataboutism, it means you have no actual defense for your behavior. You’re just appealing to “someone else did something bad”.