this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2024
1087 points (96.8% liked)
Political Memes
5204 readers
2844 users here now
Welcome to politcal memes!
These are our rules:
Be civil
Jokes are okay, but don’t intentionally harass or disturb any member of our community. Sexism, racism and bigotry are not allowed. Good faith argumentation only. No posts discouraging people to vote or shaming people for voting.
No misinformation
Don’t post any intentional misinformation. When asked by mods, provide sources for any claims you make.
Posts should be memes
Random pictures do not qualify as memes. Relevance to politics is required.
No bots, spam or self-promotion
Follow instance rules, ask for your bot to be allowed on this community.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
No. It's a complete misunderstanding of whataboutism.
Whataboutism is when you point to another similar situation and say "what about that".
Examples....
A non-whataboutism - Biden is old, but we absolutely cannot have trump, a self proclaimed wannabe dictator, become president.
A whataboutism - Biden is old. Yeah, but trump is old too!
There is nowhere that defines whataboutism with that restriction. You guys are so deep in the sand you're pulling out literal propaganda techniques to manufacture consent.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism
Here try this^^
Or just google "what is a whataboutism" and take your pick.
Basically, take the argument against you, and accuse your opposition, or someone else of the same thing.
The wiki article does not support what you're saying. It even suggests 2 other methods, accusations of double standards, and hypocrisy. The main point is to distract from the actual conversation by using an accusation.
Actually try reading your sources.
Might as well quote the relevant section.
Well would you look at that, there it is laying out exactly what I said. Deflection of an argument by accusing someone else of the same thing.
Stating that you're voting for Biden because Trump is a Fascist wannabe dictator is not a whataboutism.
For comparison, what you said was,
You presented that as the only valid use of the technique. Even the section you just quoted says there are other ways to use it. That's why there's the words, "but can also be used to..."
Stop digging your hole.
What the fuck do you think "relativize criticism" means?
Whataboutism is a specific type of logical fallacy. It is not enough for it to just be a deflection to another topic
For instance... Biden is old. Yeah, but Trump golfs too much and he cheats at it.
That is not a whataboutism.
So that's your also.
Then what is it "also" to? What limits are actually placed on it.