• Wow I sure am seeing a lot of thinly veiled “but what about” and “that’s just propaganda you’re being lied to by your government and people online and no I will not provide you with anything other than mockery because lmao amiriteguyz” in these comments

    • EmmiLime@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      32
      ·
      edit-2
      1 day ago

      What point are you trying to make? A country that commits some of the most heinous atrocities in recent history and has serious flaws in their society like racism and inequality does NOT get to dictate and police others on these matters, especially in matters of morality. It’s completely ironic and hypocritical and not to mention reeks of chauvinism.

    • davel@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      26
      ·
      1 day ago

      Citations Needed podcast:
      Whataboutism - The Media’s Favorite Rhetorical Shield Against Criticism of US Policy

      Since the beginning of what’s generally called ‘RussiaGate’ three years ago, pundits, media outlets, even comedians have all become insta-experts on supposed Russian propaganda techniques. The most cunning of these tricks, we are told, is that of “whataboutism” – a devious Soviet tactic of deflecting criticism by pointing out the accusers’ hypocrisy and inconsistencies. The tu quoque - or, “you, also” - fallacy, but with a unique Slavic flavor of nihilism, used by Trump and leftists alike in an effort to change the subject and focus on the faults of the United States rather than the crimes of Official State Enemies.

      But what if “whataboutism” isn’t describing a propaganda technique, but in fact is one itself: a zombie phrase that’s seeped into everyday liberal discourse that – while perhaps useful in the abstract - has manifestly turned any appeal to moral consistency into a cunning Russian psyop. From its origins in the Cold War as a means of deflecting and apologizing for Jim Crow to its braindead contemporary usage as a way of not engaging any criticism of the United States as the supposed arbiter of human rights, the term “whataboutism” has become a term that - 100 percent of the time - is simply used to defend and legitimizing American empire’s moral narratives.